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United States air strikes targeted Islamic State Militants in northwestern Nigeria on Thursday escalated an offensive that Nigeria’s vast military has been fighting for years.
us President donald trump Said on social media that “powerful and deadly” attacks were carried out islamic State militants are “mainly targeting and brutally killing innocents.” ChristiansResidents and security analysts have said Nigeria’s security crisis affects both the majority Christians in the south and the majority Muslims in the north.
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.
The Associated Press could not confirm the extent of the strike’s impact. US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a post on Twitter about the airstrikes: “There is more to come…”
Terrorists were targeted in American air strikes
Armed groups in Africa’s most populous country include at least two groups affiliated with Islamic State – an offshoot of the Boko Haram extremist group known as 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.
Although officials did not say which group was targeted, security analysts said the target, if indeed it was against Islamic State militants, was likely members of Lakurawa, which has become more deadly in border states such as Sokoto and Kebbi in the past year, often targeting remote communities and security forces.
The Nigerian military has said in the past that the group has its roots in neighboring Niger and that it has become more active in Nigeria’s border communities after a 2023 military coup. That coup resulted in a breakdown in relations between Nigeria and Niger and affected their multinational military operations along the open border.
Militants invited to provide security are now harassing villages
Several analysts have said that Lakurawa has been active in northwest Nigeria since around 2017, when it was invoked by traditional authorities in Sokoto to protect their communities from bandit groups.
However, according to James Barnett, an African researcher at the Washington-based Hudson Institute, the militants “overstayed their welcome, clashing with some community leaders… and imposing a harsh interpretation of Sharia law that has alienated much of the rural population.”
According to Malik Samuel, a Nigerian security researcher at Good Governance Africa, “communities now openly say that the Lakurawa are more oppressive and dangerous than the bandits they claim to protect them from.”
Lakurawa controls areas in Sokoto and Kebbi states, Samuel said, and is known for murder, kidnapping, rape and armed robbery.
But according to the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, some of the attacks on Lakurawa have been blamed on Islamic State Sahel Province, which stretches from Niger’s Dosso region to northwestern Nigeria.
“The ISSP has maintained a low profile while working covertly to infiltrate and establish itself along the Niger-Nigeria border, and is now expanding its operations toward the Beninese border,” the project said in a recent report.
Nigeria’s insecurity is deeply rooted in social issues
The security crisis is more a governance problem than a military problem.
The motives for attacks vary but gangs are often motivated by the near-absence of the state and security presence in hot spots of conflict, making recruitment easier. Data shows those hot spots have the country’s highest levels of poverty, hunger and lack of jobs.
Nigeria’s Defense Minister Christopher Musa, in his previous capacity as Chief of Defence, once said that military action is only 30% of fixing the country’s security crisis, while the remaining 70% depends on good governance.
“The absence of the state in remote communities is making it easier for non-state actors to come in and present themselves to the people as the best alternative government,” Samuel said.
US strikes seen as significant support for Nigeria’s military
Thursday’s US strikes were seen as a significant boost to Nigeria’s security forces, which are often overstretched and weakened as they fight multiple security crises in different regions.
In states such as Sokoto, the military frequently conducts airstrikes targeting terrorist hideouts and Nigeria has begun large-scale recruitment of security forces.
But analysts say military operations targeting the gangs are usually not sustained and militants easily move to new locations on motorcycles through the vast forests linking several states in the north.
They often use hostages – including schoolchildren – as cover, making air strikes difficult.