LAGOS, Nigeria – By publicly cooperating with the United States on Christmas Day airstrikes, Nigeria’s government may have averted the outrageous unilateral military action threatened by President Donald Trump a month ago.
But security experts say it is unclear whether such attacks would do much to stop the Islamist militants who have long threatened communities in the region.
Trump announced on Truth Social on Thursday that the US military has launched strikes against Islamic State militants in northwestern Nigeria at the request of the Nigerian government.
Local media reported powerful explosions in the village of Jabo on the evening of Christmas Day. Reuters could not confirm whether there were any casualties.
Abuja confirmed that it had approved the operation. Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar said on Friday that Nigeria had taken joint action with the US but did not target any particular religion.
“Nigeria is a multi-religious country, and we are working with partners like the US to fight terrorism and protect lives and property,” Tuggar told Nigeria’s Channels Television.
Trump threatened action
Nigeria’s population of more than 230 million is roughly evenly divided between Christians, who dominate the south, and Muslims, who dominate the north.
Last month, Trump threatened to order his military to take military action in Nigeria unless authorities there took action to stop the persecution of Christians.
While Nigeria has faced persistent security challenges, including violence and kidnappings by Islamic insurgents in the north, it strongly denies that Christians suffer systematic persecution.
Its government responded to Trump’s threat by saying it intended to work with Washington against terrorists, while rejecting US language that suggested Christians were particularly at risk.
“After Trump threatened to brandish guns in Nigeria, we saw a Nigerian delegation visit the US,” Kabir Adamu, managing director of Abuja-based Beacon Security and Intelligence Ltd, told Reuters.
“The Attorney General was involved, and agreements were signed. Then we learned about American surveillance missions mapping terrorist locations.”
Taking part in the attacks could increase the risk that the government could be perceived as supporting Trump’s language on broader sectarian conflict, a sensitive issue in Nigeria’s history.
“Trump is promoting domestic evangelical Christian objectives with his ‘Christian genocide’ narrative,” Adamu said.
The northwestern region where Thursday’s airstrikes occurred has been plagued by increasing violence from members of the Lakurawa sect, a strict Sunni Islamist movement that claims affiliation with the Islamic State group.
Formed as a vigilante organization, the group evolved into a jihadist movement that imposed strict Islamic rule in hundreds of villages in the region. Nigeria declared the group a terrorist organization earlier this year.
“It is very likely that this is the same group that Trump was referring to when he referred to US military strikes in Nigeria,” said Confidence McHarry, a senior analyst at Lagos-based SBM Intelligence. “They have also been linked to large-scale cattle theft, with most of the stolen animals ending up in markets along the Nigeria-Niger border.”
But Adamu questioned whether the strikes would do much to counter the rebels, noting that the affected village was not previously known to harbor militants.
“We were told the Nigerian government approved the attack, but why Jabo when there is no record of any group there?” He said.
