Lagos (AFP) – A senior Islamic State group leader, described as “the most active terrorist in the world,” has been killed in a joint operation by US and Nigerian forces in the west African country, the two countries’ presidents said. Under US sanctions since 2023, Abu-Bilal al-Minuki was the second-in-command of IS worldwide, according to US President Donald Trump and the two militaries. The killing comes as IS activity is increasingly concentrated in Africa. It hit a record high of 86 percent in the first quarter of 2026, up from 49 percent in all of 2024, according to a report by global conflict monitor ACLED released this week.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social announcing the killing that “at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield.” Nigeria’s defence forces said al-Minuki was “one of the world’s most active terrorists.” As director of global operations for IS, al-Minuki provided strategic guidance on media and financial operations and “the development and manufacturing of weapons, explosives and drones,” according to the Nigerian military and US Africa Command (AFRICOM).
“Al-Minuki was the most active terrorist in the world and has a significant history of involvement in planning attacks and directing hostage-taking,” said AFRICOM. “Nigerian Armed Forces, working closely with the Armed Forces of the United States, conducted a daring joint operation that dealt a heavy blow to the ranks of the Islamic State,” Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu said, confirming the killing. Tinubu stated that al-Minuki, also known as Abu-Mainok, was slain along with his lieutenants “on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin,” a restive region straddling Nigeria, Niger, Chad, and Cameroon.
The operation was described as “a meticulously planned and highly complex precision air-land operation” carried out Saturday from just after midnight through 4:00 am (2300 and 0300 GMT), the Nigerian army said. Military spokesman Sani Uba noted that al-Minuki had established a “concealed and fortified enclave” at a remote village in the Borno State in the northeast, the epicenter of a 17-year armed insurgency.
Al-Minuki’s death removes a “critical node through which ISIS coordinated and directed operations across different regions of the world,” said the Nigerian military. Nigeria has long been battling jihadist insurgents, including Boko Haram and regional offshoots of the IS organization, primarily the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). Since late 2025, Nigeria has been under pressure from the United States, which has accused it of not doing enough to combat the Islamist militant threat.
On Christmas Day, the United States, in collaboration with Nigerian authorities, carried out airstrikes in northwestern Sokoto State targeting fighters from the IS in the Sahel group, usually active in neighboring Niger. Washington has since deployed hundreds of troops to Nigeria to support and train its forces. Tinubu thanked Trump for his “leadership and unwavering support,” as he looked “forward to more decisive strikes against all terrorist enclaves across the nation.” No soldiers or assets were reported lost during the operation.
Al-Minuki oversaw IS-linked operations across the Sahel and west Africa, including attacks against “ethnic and religious minority communities,” the Nigerian military said. Previously a senior member of Boko Haram, which has been waging an Islamist insurgency in the region since 2009, he was linked to the 2018 Dapchi kidnapping of more than 100 schoolgirls in northeastern Yobe state. Between March 2015 and early 2016, he also facilitated the movement of fighters to Libya to support IS operations in north Africa, the army stated. Trump remarked that al-Minuki “thought he could hide in Africa.”
The Nigerian presidency stressed that the slain militant was indeed al-Minuki, after local media raised questions about his identity. They noted that the military had previously, in 2024, announced the killing of a jihadist leader with a similar name. Security officials say the “earlier listing was a case of mistaken identity or misattribution in the fog of sustained counterinsurgency operations,” president Tinubu’s spokesman Bayo Onanuga said.
Hours after the announcement of the operation, Nigeria’s police reported a deadly jihadist raid the previous week at a special training center in the country’s troubled northeast. The attackers had killed 17 officers in the May 8 incident, according to a police statement in northeastern Yobe state.
© 2024 AFP
