Why Trump Ordered A Military Airstrike In Nigeria

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump announced on Christmas Day that the United States had conducted military strikes against Islamic State targets in northwestern Nigeria, marking a significant escalation in his administration’s response to violence in Nigeria’s north.

The operation, which included Tomahawk missiles fired from a Navy vessel that struck two ISIS camps, came after months of warnings from Trump that he would take military action to address what he characterized as the targeting of Christians in Nigeria.

The President’s Rationale

Trump said ISIL fighters had been “viciously” killing and targeting Christians at levels unseen for “centuries”, and declared in a post on Truth Social that he had “previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay.”

The strikes were carried out in Sokoto state, which borders Niger to the north, according to U.S. Africa Command.

AFRICOM’s initial assessment indicated that “multiple ISIS terrorists were killed in the ISIS camps.”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signaled the operation might not be the last, posting on social media that there was “more to come” while thanking the Nigerian government for its cooperation.

A Coordinated Response

Despite Trump announcing the strikes hours before any Nigerian government statement, Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told CNN he had spoken with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio prior to the strike and that President Bola Tinubu gave the “go ahead.”

Related: What Trump’s Travel Ban Means For Nigerians

Major General Samaila Uba, Nigeria’s director of defence information, said the strike received approval from federal government authorities and represented “precision strike operations against identified foreign ISIS-linked elements operating in parts of North West Nigeria.”

Months of Escalating Tensions

The strikes followed Trump’s November designation of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” under U.S. religious freedom law, suggesting his administration found that Nigeria has engaged in or tolerated systematic violations of religious freedom.

Trump had threatened to suspend aid to Nigeria and in November called on his defense secretary to “prepare for possible action” against Africa’s most populous nation, even warning the U.S. would enter Nigeria “guns-a-blazing” to protect Christians.

The Complex Reality on the Ground

While Trump framed the strikes as protecting Christians from targeted violence, experts and analysts say the reality on the ground is more nuanced, with both Christians and Muslims falling victim to attacks by radical Islamists.

Data from crisis monitoring group Armed Conflict Location & Event Data shows that out of more than 20,400 civilians killed in attacks between January 2020 and September 2025, 317 deaths were from attacks targeting Christians while 417 were from attacks targeting Muslims.

Nigerian security analyst Oluwole Oyewale noted that Trump’s “binary framing of the issue as attacks targeting Christians does not resonate with the reality on the ground”, as extremist groups operate in predominantly Muslim states and attacks in public spaces disproportionately harm Muslims.

Nigeria’s government has consistently maintained that armed groups target both Muslims and Christians, and that the violence stems from multiple complex factors including ethnic tensions and disputes over natural resources, not solely religious persecution.

Questions About Long-Term Strategy

Retired U.S. Air Force Col. Cedric Leighton cautioned that the strike could “disrupt ISIS operations in the short term, but the long-term issues that surround violence in Nigeria are extremely complex”, noting economic factors at play.

Leighton added that “the way most of these strikes work is that they need to be part of a larger campaign, and what we’re not seeing here is that larger campaign”.

Some observers in Nigeria have expressed concerns about whether the strikes, announced by Trump before any Nigerian government statement, might signal a new, longer-term U.S. military role in the country, potentially undermining Nigerian sovereignty.

The operation comes as Trump has positioned himself as a defender of Christian communities worldwide while also vowing to limit U.S. military intervention abroad, creating a tension that the Nigeria strikes appear to reflect.