The United States has confirmed carrying out military airstrikes in northwestern Nigeria, marking a rare instance of direct U.S. kinetic action on Nigerian soil and stirring diplomatic sensitivities over how the country’s violence is framed.
According to official U.S. statements, the operation was conducted on December 25, 2025, targeting suspected militant camps in Sokoto State near Nigeria’s northwestern frontier. The Pentagon said more than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from a U.S. Navy vessel operating in the Gulf of Guinea.
U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said the strikes targeted camps linked to the Islamic State group. Regional analysts believe the primary group hit was “Lakurawa,” a relatively new insurgent faction in northwestern Nigeria with growing transnational jihadist ties.
President Donald Trump announced the operation on his Truth Social platform, describing the targets as “terrorists” and framing the strikes as a response to the killing of civilians, “primarily innocent Christians.”
In an interview with The New York Times published on January 8, 2026, Trump warned that further U.S. military action remained possible, saying he hoped the Christmas Day strikes would be a “one-time” operation but could be repeated if violence continued.
Nigeria’s federal government confirmed the strikes were conducted as a joint operation at Abuja’s request but firmly rejected any religious characterization of the conflict, stressing that the targets were terrorist groups, not religious communities.
The episode has underscored growing differences between Washington and Abuja over how Nigeria’s complex security crisis should be defined and addressed, even as both sides agree on the need to confront extremist violence.
