On December 25, 2025, as much of the world settled into the quiet of Christmas night, President Donald Trump took to his social media platform, Truth Social, to deliver a thunderous announcement: the United States had launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS militants in northwest Nigeria. The operation, he declared, targeted those whom he accused of “viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!”—a claim that has long figured in Trump’s rhetoric about Nigeria and religious violence in Africa’s most populous nation.
According to Reuters, the strike was not a solo American venture. U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) confirmed that the action was carried out in coordination with Nigerian authorities, at their request. The official statement from AFRICOM noted that the strike occurred in Sokoto State, a region in northwest Nigeria, and resulted in the deaths of “multiple ISIS terrorists.” This was echoed by General Dagvin Anderson, the commander of AFRICOM, who said, “U.S. Africa Command is working with our Nigerian and regional partners to increase counter terrorism cooperation efforts related to ongoing violence and threats against innocent lives. Our goal is to protect Americans and disrupt violent extremist organizations wherever they are.”
Details about the operation itself trickled out through various sources. The New York Times reported that more than a dozen Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from a U.S. Navy ship positioned in the Gulf of Guinea, striking two ISIS camps in Sokoto State. A Pentagon official, speaking anonymously, confirmed that the operation was closely coordinated with the Nigerian military and targeted known ISIS positions. The precision of the strikes was emphasized by President Trump, who wrote, “The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.”
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, echoing the president’s tone, posted on X (formerly Twitter), “More to come,” suggesting that this might be just the beginning of a renewed U.S. campaign against militant groups in West Africa. Hegseth also expressed gratitude to the Nigerian government for its support and cooperation. “The President was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end. The @DeptofWar is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight—on Christmas. Merry Christmas!” he wrote.
While the U.S. celebrated the operation as a Christmas victory against terrorism, the response from Nigeria was more measured. The country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs released a statement confirming “structured security cooperation with international partners, including the United States of America, in addressing the persistent threat of terrorism and violent extremism.” The ministry acknowledged that this cooperation had led to “precision hits on terrorist targets in Nigeria by air strikes in the North West.” Yet, Nigerian officials were quick to push back against the narrative that Christians were being uniquely targeted, insisting that armed groups threaten both Muslim and Christian communities and that the country’s security situation is far more complex than a simple religious framing suggests.
Indeed, as Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris reported from Lagos, Sokoto State—where the strike occurred—is predominantly Muslim, and recent years have seen few, if any, major attacks on Christians in that region. Idris noted, “To look at the issue of alleged Christian genocide in Nigeria, Sokoto State is probably the last place many Nigerians would think it’s happening.”
Nonetheless, the American narrative has focused sharply on the plight of Christians. Trump’s rhetoric on this front has been relentless. In early November, he posted a video threatening to go into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” if the government did not act to protect Christians. He also threatened to withhold humanitarian aid unless Nigerian authorities took stronger action against militant violence. These threats, coupled with mounting political pressure in Washington, led to the U.S. State Department designating Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” regarding religious freedoms.
Behind the scenes, the U.S. military had been preparing. According to Reuters, intelligence-gathering flights over Nigeria began in late November, with surveillance aircraft operating out of an airbase in Accra, Ghana. The decision to strike on Christmas Day was likely no accident; as Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi observed, it was a move sure to resonate with Trump’s evangelical Christian base in the United States.
But what of the strike itself? Social media in Nigeria quickly filled with images of what appeared to be missile fragments near a village in Sokoto State. According to Al Jazeera, these fragments were found outside a populated area and, at least in this instance, did not cause civilian casualties. However, the full extent of the damage and the precise number of militants killed remained unclear as of December 26, 2025. The Pentagon and AFRICOM have offered little additional detail, and the Nigerian Embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment from POLITICO.
Trump, for his part, issued his statement from Mar-a-Lago, his Palm Beach, Florida, residence, where he was spending the holiday. “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 wrote, making no secret of his intent to keep up the pressure on militant groups in the region.
The strikes in Nigeria are just the latest in a series of military actions Trump has authorized since returning to the White House in January 2025, following previous campaigns in Iran, Syria, and the Caribbean. His willingness to employ American military power abroad—often with little warning—has become a hallmark of his foreign policy approach.
Yet, the debate over the true nature of Nigeria’s security crisis remains unresolved. As Taiwo Hassan Adebayo, a researcher at the Institute of Security Studies, told the Associated Press, “The crisis is far more complex than a simple religious framing suggests.” Nigeria’s population is roughly split between Muslims, who mostly live in the north, and Christians, who are concentrated in the south. Violence by armed groups has affected both communities, and the government insists it is committed to protecting all Nigerians, regardless of faith. President Bola Tinubu, in his own Christmas message, called for peace “especially between individuals of differing religious beliefs,” and pledged to “do everything within my power to enshrine religious freedom in Nigeria and to protect Christians, Muslims, and all Nigerians from violence.”
As the dust settles from the Christmas Day strikes, questions linger about their long-term impact. Will the operation weaken ISIS in Nigeria, or will it inflame tensions in a region already beset by complexity and mistrust? For now, the world watches and waits, as both the U.S. and Nigeria navigate the aftermath of a dramatic show of force that has placed their uneasy partnership—and the lives of millions—squarely in the global spotlight.
