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Before the strikes on Thursday, President Trump said he would halt all aid and go in “guns-a-blazing” to target affiliates of a resurgent Islamic State.
Published Nov. 3, 2025Updated Dec. 26, 2025, 3:56 p.m. ET
The strikes on Thursday on what the United States called Islamic State targets in northwestern Nigeria followed President Trump’s threat earlier this year to take military action if Nigeria’s government did not stop the killing of Christians by Islamist militants.
Mr. Trump has not specified which attacks he was referring to, nor has he cited evidence for the claim, made by several of his political allies, that Christians in Nigeria were facing a “genocide.”
Analysts say that the situation on the ground in Nigeria is far more complicated than Mr. Trump has suggested.
U.S. military officials have also expressed doubt that strikes would do much to quell violence in West Africa. Recent coups and the withdrawal of Western forces from the region have created a vacuum, allowing insurgent groups linked to the Islamic State and to Al Qaeda to expand attacks against military targets and civilians.
The strikes
More than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles were fired from a Navy ship in the Gulf of Guinea, striking two Islamic State camps in Nigeria’s Sokoto State, according to a U.S. military official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss operational matters.
More than 12,000 people were killed by various violent groups in Nigeria this year
Source: ACLED (Armed Conflict Location and Event Data) Agnes Chang/The New York Times
