Abuja (AFP) – Nigeria’s air force will take the lead from the United States after Washington’s Christmas Day strikes on jihadists, making use of US reconnaissance flights to aid its own strikes, a Nigerian official told AFP Tuesday. On the evening of Christmas Day, the United States struck sites in northwest Nigeria’s Sokoto state against what it said were targets linked to the Islamic State group.
Though Nigeria remains open to further American strikes, the Americans’ primary role will now be providing intel, the source familiar with the new security arrangement with Washington said, asking for anonymity because of its sensitivity. Africa’s most populous country has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2009, mostly concentrated in its northeast, while armed “bandit” gangs have taken hold across swathes of the country’s rural northwest and north-central regions.
The strikes came after a diplomatic offensive starting in October in which President Donald Trump alleged that violence from armed groups in Nigeria amounted to “persecution” and “genocide” of Christians — accusations denied by Abuja and independent analysts. Days before the strikes, Nigeria’s information minister said the “spat” had been resolved, “culminating in a strengthened partnership between America and Nigeria”. For weeks ahead of the strikes, analysts had been tracking increased US reconnaissance flights over Nigeria. The recon flights have continued since.
The New York Times, citing unnamed Pentagon officials, recently reported that the US strikes were a “one-time event”. Though they came after Nigeria and the United States at least partially buried the hatchet, the strikes caused headaches in Abuja when Trump took unilateral credit for them. In response, Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar went on a media offensive, insisting that they were part of a joint operation.
Adding to the complications, Washington officials were largely unreachable until the days leading up to the strike, before finally calling their Nigerian counterparts with their plans, the source said. According to Abuja, the strikes targeted Islamic State militants, who were in the country to work with the Lakurawa jihadist group and “bandit” gangs. All three groups were targeted, presidential spokesman Daniel Bwala said. Both countries said there were an unspecified number of militants killed.
A hotel manager in Offa, Kwara state, told AFP three of his staff were hospitalised after munitions debris fell on his building. Some researchers have recently linked some members of Lakurawa — the main jihadist group located in Sokoto state — to Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), which is active in neighbouring Niger near the Nigerian border. Other analysts have disputed those links.
© 2024 AFP
