The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has warned of new strikes against Islamic State targets in northwestern Nigeria, hours after the US military took action against militant camps in what Donald Trump has characterised as efforts to stop the killing of Christians.
Mr Hegseth wrote on X: “The president was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end. The [Pentagon] is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight – on Christmas. More to come ... Grateful for Nigerian Government support & cooperation. Merry Christmas!”
Nigeria’s foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, said on Friday that the US strikes, which came after Mr Trump had locked the countries in a diplomatic dispute when he accused Nigeria’s government of failing to stop Christians being killed in the country, were “part of joint ongoing operations”.
Nigeria is officially secular and its population is almost evenly split between Muslims (53 per cent) and Christians (45 per cent). Violence against Christians has drawn attention from the religious right in the US, which has framed it as persecution. Nigeria’s government has pointed out that armed groups target Christians and Muslims.
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Nigeria provided intelligence for the air strikes in Sokoto state, Mr Tuggar told the country’s Channels Television on Friday. He said he had spoken to his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, for 19 minutes, then called the Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, to get his go-ahead, before speaking to Mr Rubio again for another five minutes.
“We have been working closely with the Americans,” Mr Tuggar said. “This is what we’ve always been hoping for, to work with the Americans, to work with other countries, to combat terrorism, to stop the death of innocent Nigerians ... It’s a collaborative effort.”
The US military’s Africa Command (Africom) said the strikes in Sokoto state had been carried out in co-ordination with Nigerian authorities. An earlier Africom statement posted on X and then removed said they had been conducted at the request of Nigerian authorities.
Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Thursday: “Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!
“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was.”
Neither the US nor the Nigerian authorities have said if anyone was killed in the air strikes.
Residents in the Sokoto village of Jabo, where the strike hit, said there had been no casualties and that security forces had cordoned off the area.
Forests in Sokoto, which is bordered by Niger to the north, have been used as bases by gangs of armed bandits and members of Islamic State – Sahel Province (ISSP), known locally as Lakurawa. Some analysts say the Islamic State branch started when a group of herders joined together to fight bandits in the absence of state support. The state is mostly Muslim.
Clashes between Muslim herders and predominantly Christian farming communities in parts of Nigeria have been aggravated by ethnicity and religion but their roots lie in competition for land and water.
Priests and pastors have increasingly been kidnapped for ransom but some experts say this may be a trend driven by criminal incentives rather than religious discrimination.
Mr Tuggar said the operation was about “protecting Nigerians and innocent lives”, not one religion or another. “It is not targeting any religion, nor is it simply in the name of one religion or another.” – Guardian
