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Donald Trump approved strikes on Christmas Day against alleged Isis militants in north-western Nigeria, a series of missile attacks in Sokoto state that were co-ordinated with Abuja.
The US president announced the “powerful and deadly strike” in a social media post on Thursday, hitting what he claimed were Isis militants “who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians”.
“The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing,” he added. “May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.”
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth said on X on Thursday that he was “grateful for Nigerian government support & co-operation”, suggesting that Abuja had known that attacks were coming. “More to come,” he wrote.
Nigeria’s government confirmed there had been “precision hits on terrorist targets” in what it called “structured security co-operation with international partners, including the United States of America”.
The defence department released a video showing a missile fired from a ship, most likely in the Gulf of Guinea, according to analysts. The US Africa Command said its initial assessment of the strikes on Sokoto state, on the border with Niger, was that “multiple Isis terrorists were killed in the Isis camps”.
It said that no further details would be released for operational reasons, but posts on Nigerian social media reported explosions in Jabo, a small town about 20km south of the state capital.
Nigeria has disputed Trump’s characterisation of terrorist violence and criminal abductions as targeted specifically at Christians. In its statement, it said “all counterterrorism efforts are guided by the primacy of protecting civilian lives, safeguarding national unity, and upholding the rights and dignity of all citizens, irrespective of faith or ethnicity”.
Abuja said co-operation had included “exchange of intelligence . . . and other forms of support consistent with international law, mutual respect for sovereignty”.
Reaction on social media in Nigeria was mixed, with some people criticising the US for violating Nigeria’s sovereignty. Others cautiously welcomed the strikes and blamed the Nigerian government for not taking more decisive action.
Trump has repeatedly expressed concern about the targeting of Christians in the country, warning that the religion faces an “existential threat” in Nigeria. In November he designated the west African state a “country of particular concern”, a status that can precede the imposition of sanctions against a specific nation.
He said at the time that the US was willing to go into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing”, as he accused Abuja of failing to take sufficient action to stop the killing of Christians by extremist groups.
Weeks later, gunmen in Nigeria abducted hundreds of schoolchildren from a Catholic school. Nigeria has long grappled with the threat of terror groups, criminal gangs and banditry targeting both Muslims and Christians.
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