{"id":7191,"date":"2025-12-27T07:42:42","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T07:42:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=7191"},"modified":"2025-12-27T07:42:42","modified_gmt":"2025-12-27T07:42:42","slug":"after-trump-strike-on-terrorists-nigeria-says-its-open-to-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microvibenews.com\/?p=7191","title":{"rendered":"After Trump strike on terrorists, Nigeria says it\u2019s open to more"},"content":{"rendered":"

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After the US warned that more strikes may follow its surprise Christmas Day attack on suspected terrorist targets in Nigeria, officials in the West African nation suggested they\u2019d be open to continued intervention.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe this is an ongoing thing and we\u2019re working with the US,\u201d Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told Channels Television Friday. \u201cIt\u2019s a new phase of an old conflict.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read: Nigeria declares security emergency after mass abductions<\/p>\n

Nigeria is coordinating the effort with the US and more American attacks are expected, according to senior Nigerian officials who asked not to be identified to discuss matters that aren\u2019t public.<\/p>\n

The US hasn\u2019t said anything publicly about possible further strikes, but Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth included the words, \u201cmore to come\u201d in his\u00a0tweet announcing the attack on Christmas Day. President Donald Trump, spending the holidays at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida, reposted his announcement of the strike Friday without further comment.<\/p>\n

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While Trump ran on a platform of pulling the US back from conflicts around the world, he\u2019s spent much of his first year in office on foreign policy.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He\u2019s used force far from US borders repeatedly, from attacks against alleged terrorists in Somalia, Yemen and Syria to a massive strike on Iran\u2019s nuclear installations. The president has mounted a widening campaign against Venezuela\u2019s government, involving seizing oil tankers and striking boats that are allegedly ferrying drugs.<\/p>\n

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The strikes in Nigeria drew praise from some of Trump\u2019s allies, including far-right provocateur Laura Loomer, who has criticized the US military\u2019s actions in the Caribbean.<\/p>\n

The president has called out Nigeria in recent months for what he and his supporters claimed were attacks targeting Christians.<\/p>\n

Nigerian officials strongly rejected that characterization, saying the threat was from terrorists and part of broader unrest across that part of Africa, highlighting the political complexities around the administration\u2019s latest international military action.<\/p>\n

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\u201cSimplistic labels don\u2019t solve complex threats,\u201d Tuggar\u00a0wrote on X\u00a0Friday. \u201cTerrorism in Nigeria is not a religious conflict; it is a regional security threat.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He said the US strikes were based on intelligence from the government in Abuja and followed a conversation with Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Rubio spoke with Nigeria\u2019s foreign minister multiple times Thursday before the attacks, according to a US official familiar with the matter.<\/p>\n

The US released no details on the strikes themselves \u2014 beyond a\u00a0video\u00a0of a missile being launched from a warship in a social media post from the Pentagon \u2014 or what damage they had done.<\/p>\n

Trump told Politico in an interview published Friday that the attack \u201cdecimated\u201d terrorist camps. He also said he\u2019d delayed the strike by a day to land on Thursday, calling it a \u201cChristmas present.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The attack hit the Sokoto region of northwestern Nigeria, an area where a local Catholic bishop said in October that Christians aren\u2019t facing persecution. The Defense Ministry said the targets were linked to Islamic State.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Nigeria\u2019s information minister, Mohammed Idris,\u00a0said on X that the strikes were launched from vessels in the Gulf of Guinea and used MQ-9 Reaper drones. They fired 16 GPS-guided munitions that neutralized Islamic State elements seeking to enter the country from the Sahel corridor, he said.<\/p>\n

\"Mar-a-Lago,<\/p>\n

\u201cGiven what we know for now about the attacks, they are largely a signal for something larger,\u201d said Confidence MacHarry, a security analyst at SB Morgen Intelligence in Lagos. \u201cIt is very likely that future attacks will do more damage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The country of about 230 million people, by far the most populous in Africa, is split roughly evenly between Muslim and Christian populations and has been riven by violence for decades.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt seems as if we\u2019re at the moment where the Nigerian authorities have finally realized that they can\u2019t do this thing alone, they need help, and the United States government appears more than willing to give that help,\u201d said Ebenezer Obadare, a senior fellow for Africa studies at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington.<\/p>\n

In November, Trump threatened military action if attacks continued. Shortly afterward, terrorists abducted more than 200 children from a Catholic school. They were released earlier this week, according to the government.<\/p>\n

\u00a9\u00a02025\u00a0Bloomberg<\/p>\n

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