President Trump announces strike on ISIS targets in Nigeria

President Trump listens during a ceremony for the presentation of the Mexican Border Defense Medal in the Oval Office of the White House on Dec. 15. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images hide caption

toggle caption

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

The U.S. has launched a "deadly strike" against Islamic State fighters in northwest Nigeria in what President Trump suggested in a social media post late Thursday was in retaliation for the killing of Christians in the area.

In a Christmas night post on Truth Social, Trump said the strike was directed at "ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not see for many years, and even Centuries!"

U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) said in a statement it had "conducted a strike at the request of Nigerian authorities" and that "multiple ISIS terrorists were killed in the ISIS camps," in Sokoto State.

However, the extent of the strikes in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, with an estimated 237 million people, was not immediately clear.

The announcement follows multiple U.S. strikes last week against ISIS targets in Syria in response to what U.S. Central Command described as a targeted killing of two U.S. soldiers and an interpreter by an ISIS gunman there.

In a post on X, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said: "More to come... Grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation. Merry Christmas!"

In his post, Trump wrote: "I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was."

"May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues," he said.

Trump has accused Nigeria of failing to stop the persecution of Christians, which a spokesman for Nigeria's president said was based on misleading reports.

In October, Trump designated Nigeria "a country of particular concern" as it relates to religious freedom. Nigeria's foreign ministry responded by saying that it does not "reflect the situation on the ground. Nigerians of all faiths have long lived, worked, and worshipped together peacefully."

Last month Trump said he ordered the Pentagon to draw up plans for possible military action against Nigeria and warned that the U.S. would suspend aid to the West African country.

Nigeria is roughly divided between Christians and Muslims. The Nigerian government says attacks by militant groups are less about religion than where those groups are located.

Nigeria's government has been keen to stress that the strike had its backing and that it shared intelligence with the U.S. ahead of the Christmas Day attack.

Speaking to Nigeria's Channels TV, Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar said he spoke twice with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio — once for 19 minutes before the strike and again briefly afterwards — adding that Nigerian President Bola Tinubu gave the green light.

Tuggar said the strikes would be an "ongoing process" involving other countries, though he did not give details. He insisted Nigeria's fight against armed groups is not driven by religion, "whether Muslims or Christians, and irrespective of the type of terrorism."

Gen. Dagvin Anderson, the commander of the U.S. Africa Command, said in the AFRICOM statement that the U.S. was "working with Nigerian and regional partners" and "will continue to assess the results of the operation" but would not release details of the operation.

NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu reported from Lagos, Nigeria.