Halt Military Cooperation With U.S. Immediately – Gumi

Islamic cleric Sheikh Ahmad Gumi has called on the Nigerian government to end all military cooperation with the United States, following recent US air strikes on suspected terrorist targets in the country.

The U.S. military’s U.S. Africa Command confirmed that the strike was carried out in Sokoto State in coordination with Nigerian authorities and resulted in the deaths of several Islamic State militants.

“At the direction of the President of the United States and the Secretary of War, and in coordination with Nigerian authorities, U.S. Africa Command conducted strikes against ISIS terrorists in Nigeria on Dec. 25, 2025, in Sokoto State,” AFRICOM wrote on X.

Reacting in a Facebook post on Friday, Gumi criticised the development, describing it as a mistake.

“This is the mistake Nigeria has made,” Gumi wrote. “Terrorists don’t fight terrorists in truth; they may only kill innocent people and have ulterior motives behind the drama of fighting ‘terror’.”

Gumi said that while “annihilating terrorists is an Islamic obligation,” it should be carried out by “clean, holy hands, not by another terrorist whose hands are stained with the blood of hundreds of thousands of innocent children, women, and men.”

The cleric, who has previously acted as a mediator with bandit groups, said Nigeria should “halt all military cooperation with the USA immediately” because of what he described as Washington’s “imperial tendencies worldwide.”

He warned that no country should allow its territory to become “a theatre of war” and cautioned that US involvement would “attract the real anti-US forces, making our land the theatre of war.”

“As a principle, no nation should allow its land to be a theatre of war. And no nation should allow its neighbours to be their enemies.
If Nigeria wants military assistance, China, Türkiye, and Pakistan can do the job effectively.

“The US involvement in Nigeria will attract the real anti-US forces, making our land the theatre of war. The USA’s involvement in Nigeria, citing coming to ‘protect Christians’, will ultimately polarise our nation and infringe on our sovereignty,” he stated.

He argued that “dropping a few bombs here and there cannot tackle the menace of terror” and noted that Nigeria “needs serious military on the ground, which, if we are serious, we have enough men to do that. We call on all villages affected to upload videos and pictures of any casualties involved.”

Referring to the reported strike in Sokoto, Gumi said, “The attacks are symbolic of a harbinger of a neo-Crusade war against Islam. Attacking Sokoto, where 90% are Muslim with no imminent danger of terror, while the real threat is in Maiduguri on Christmas Eve, with the claim of protecting against Christian genocide, says a lot.”

He alleged that terrorism in Nigeria was “manufactured and sustained by the same people claiming to fight it.”