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President Trump said the targets of airstrikes in Nigeria were Islamic State terrorists responsible for killing Christians, but experts question his framing.
By Ruth MacleanSaikou JammehIsmail Auwal and Eric Schmitt
Ruth Maclean and Saikou Jammeh cover West and Central Africa. Ismail Auwal writes about northern Nigeria and reported from Jos, Nigeria.
Dec. 26, 2025Updated 8:23 p.m. ET
After the U.S. military launched airstrikes on sites in northwestern Nigeria on Thursday, President Trump said the targets were Islamic State terrorists “who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians.”
But analysts say that the situation on the ground is more complicated.
Sokoto State, which was hit by more than 16 Tomahawk missiles early Friday, is populated overwhelmingly by Muslims, who bear the brunt of terrorist attacks there, according to analysts and groups that monitor conflict. Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto said recently that the area does “not have a problem with persecution” of Christians.
And analysts are divided over the existence of ties between insurgent groups in Sokoto and the Islamic State.
Some analysts say that the violent attackers in Sokoto, who are colloquially known as the Lakurawa, have links to the Islamic State’s Sahel Province branch, which is mostly farther north and west, in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
But other analysts say evidence of those links is inconclusive, as the identity of the Lakurawa group remains very murky. Its militants have operated in Sokoto and other Nigerian states for years, winning popularity by fighting local bandits at first and then turning on the rural population.
