![\"President](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/president-donald-trump-arrives-on-air-force-one-at-palm-beac-24UWDCCMDFHEZM5HJVFTLVL4EI.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe US airstrikes that targeted Islamic State group militants in northwestern Nigeria marked a major escalation in an offensive that the West African’s overstretched military has struggled with for years.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump said on social media that the \u201cpowerful and deadly\u201d strikes in the state of Sokoto were carried out against IS gunmen who were \u201ctargeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians.\u201d <\/p>\n
Residents and security analysts have said Nigeria\u2019s security crisis affects both Christians, predominant in the south, and Muslims, who are the majority in the north.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025 (Source: Associated Press)<\/p>\n
Nigeria, which is battling multiple armed groups, said the US strikes were part of an exchange of intelligence and strategic coordination between the two countries.<\/p>\n
The Associated Press could not confirm the extent of the strikes’ impact. US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a post on X about the airstrikes, said: \u201cMore to come…\u201d<\/p>\n
The militants targeted by US airstrikes<\/p>\n
The armed groups in Africa\u2019s most populous country include at least two affiliated with IS, an offshoot of the Boko Haram extremist group known as the Islamic State West Africa Province in the northeast, and the lesser-known Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), known locally as Lakurawa, and prominent in the northwest.<\/p>\n
Although officials did not say exactly which group was targeted, security analysts said the target, if indeed against IS militants, was likely members of Lakurawa, which became more lethal in border states like Sokoto and Kebbi in the last year, often targeting remote communities and security forces.<\/p>\n
The Nigerian military has said in the past that the group has roots in neighbouring Niger and that it became more active in Nigeria’s border communities following a 2023 military coup. <\/p>\n
That coup resulted in fractured relations between Nigeria and Niger, and affected their multinational military operations along the porous border.<\/p>\n
Militants torment villagers<\/p>\n
Multiple analysts have said Lakurawa has been active in northwest Nigeria since around 2017, when it was invited by traditional authorities in Sokoto to protect their communities from bandit groups.<\/p>\n
The militants, however, “overstayed their welcome, clashing with some of the community leaders … and enforcing a harsh interpretation of Sharia law that alienated much of the rural population,\u201d according to James Barnett, an Africa researcher with the Washington-based Hudson Institute.<\/p>\n
\u201cCommunities now openly say that Lakurawa are more oppressive and dangerous than the bandits they claim to protect them from,” according to Malik Samuel, a Nigerian security researcher with Good Governance Africa.<\/p>\n
Lakurawa controls territories in Sokoto and Kebbi states, and has become known for killings, kidnapping, rape and armed robbery, Samuel said.<\/p>\n
But some of the attacks blamed on Lakurawa are by the Islamic State Sahel Province, which has expanded from Niger\u2019s Dosso region to northwestern Nigeria, according to the US-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.<\/p>\n
\u201cISSP has maintained a low profile, operating covertly to infiltrate and entrench itself along the Niger-Nigeria border, and is now also expanding its operations toward the Beninese border,\u201d the project said in a recent report.<\/p>\n
Security threats are deep-rooted in social issues<\/p>\n
The security woes are more of a governance problem than a military one.<\/p>\n
Motives for attacks differ, but the gangs are often driven by the near absence of a state and security presence in conflict hot spots, making recruitment easy. Those hot spots, data show, have some of the country’s highest levels of poverty, hunger and lack of jobs.<\/p>\n
Nigeria\u2019s Minister of Defense Christopher Musa once said that military action is only 30% of what is needed to fix the country’s security crisis, while the remaining 70% depends on good governance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe absence of the state in remote communities is making it easy for non-state actors to come in and present themselves to the people as the best alternative government,\u201d said Samuel.<\/p>\n
US strikes seen as crucial support for Nigeria’s military<\/p>\n
Thursday’s US strikes are widely seen by experts as crucial help for Nigeria\u2019s security forces, which are often overstretched and outgunned as they fight multiple security crises across different regions.<\/p>\n
In states like Sokoto, the military often carries out airstrikes targeting militant hideouts and Nigeria has embarked on mass recruitment of security forces. <\/p>\n
But analysts say military operations targeting the gangs are not usually sustained and the militants easily move on motorcycles to new locations through vast forests that connect several states in the north.<\/p>\n
They also often use hostages \u2014 including schoolchildren \u2014 as cover, making airstrikes difficult.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US airstrikes that targeted Islamic State group militants in northwestern Nigeria marked a major escalation in an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":203634,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[190,42,43,64,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-203633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-africa","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-north-america","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=203633"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/203633\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/203634"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=203633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=203633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=203633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}