26 December, 2025
The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has warned of new strikes against Islamic State targets in north-western 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.
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 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%) and Christians (45%). Violence against Christians has drawn attention from the religious right in the US, which has framed it as persecution, and Trump’s supporters broadly welcomed the strikes. Nigeria’s government has pointed out that armed groups target Christians and Muslims.
Nigeria provided intelligence for the airstrikes in Sokoto state, 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 Rubio again for another five minutes.
“We have been working closely with the Americans,” 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 coordination with Nigerian authorities. An earlier Africom statement posted on X and then removed said they had been conducted at the request of Nigerian authorities.
