Nigeria to Use US Intel for Strikes

The Nigerian Air Force will take the lead in air operations against jihadist groups following recent United States (US) strikes in Nigeria, a Nigerian official told AFP on Tuesday.

According to the official, who requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the matter, Nigeria remains open to further US strikes, but Washington’s leading role going forward will be to provide intelligence, including reconnaissance flights, to support Nigerian operations.

The US struck several sites on the evening of December 25 2025, in Sokoto state, marking a rare direct American military action on Nigerian soil.

Nigerian authorities said the strikes targeted Islamic State militants working with the Lakurawa jihadist group and armed bandit gangs operating in the region.

Nigeria has been battling a jihadist insurgency since 2009, mainly in the northeast, while bandit groups have expanded across large parts of the northwest and north-central regions.

The strikes followed months of diplomatic tension between Abuja and Washington. In October, US President Donald Trump accused armed groups in Nigeria of carrying out “persecution” and “genocide” against Christians, claims rejected by the Nigerian government and independent analysts.

Nigeria to Use US Intel for Strikes. Credit: Microsoft

Days before the strikes, Nigeria’s Information Minister, Mohammed Idris, said the dispute had been resolved.

“The recent diplomatic spat with the United States has been resolved through firm, respectful engagement, culminating in a strengthened partnership,” Idris said.

The information minister also pointed to the five-year, $5.1 billion bilateral health cooperation agreement signed between both countries as proof of strengthened ties.

Analysts had tracked an increase in US reconnaissance flights over Nigeria in the weeks leading up to the strikes, and those flights have continued since, the source said.

The New York Times, citing unnamed Pentagon officials, reported that the US strikes were intended as a “one-time event”.

However, the strikes caused political discomfort in Abuja after Trump publicly took unilateral credit for them. Nigeria’s Foreign Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, later said the operation was jointly conducted.

Tuggar said President Bola Tinubu gave the go-ahead for the US strikes against terrorists in the country’s North-Western region.

“Now that the US is cooperating, we would do it jointly, and we would ensure, just as the President emphasised yesterday before he gave the go-ahead, that it must be made clear that it is a joint operation, and it is not targeting any religion nor simply in the name of one religion or the other,” the minister said.

Presidential spokesman Daniel Bwala said Islamic State fighters, Lakurawa militants and bandit groups were all targeted.

“ISIS found their way through the Sahel to go and assist the Lakurawa and the bandits with supplies and with training,” Bwala told AFP. “ISIS, Lakurawa and bandits were targeted.”

Both countries said an unspecified number of militants were killed. There were also reports of civilian impact. A hotel manager in Offa, Kwara State, told AFP that three staff members were injured after debris from munitions struck the building.