President Trump ordered U.S. strikes on ISIS targets in northwest Nigeria, in response to what he claimed is persecution of Christians
AILSA CHANG, HOST:
We begin this hour with the U.S. missile strikes against alleged Islamic state camps in Nigeria. In a Truth Social post, President Trump called the Islamist militants, quote, “terrorist scum,” who have been targeting Christians there. Now, the number of casualties is not yet clear, but the U.S. said more deadly strikes will follow. The airstrikes came after recent threats by President Trump to intervene unless Nigeria did more to protect Christians, who he says are facing a genocide, which Nigeria has strongly denied. Joining us now for more is NPR Africa correspondent Emmanuel Akinwotu in Lagos, Nigeria. Hi, Emmanuel.
EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: Hi.
CHANG: So what more can you tell us about this operation?
AKINWOTU: So despite the significance of these strikes and obviously the many potential ramifications, there’s still very few details that are slowly emerging. What we’ve had is a handful of statements, beginning with President Trump’s post on Truth Social overnight and followed by statements from the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, and then hours later from the Nigerian government. The strikes were launched from a U.S. warship and targeted Sokoto state in northwest Nigeria. It’s close to the border with Niger, where according to regional security experts and the U.S. State Department, there’s a small but significant presence of ISIS militants. They’re called IS Sahel Province and locally referred to as Lakurawa. They’re militants from neighboring countries who’ve been making incursions into Nigeria from West Africa’s Sahel region over the last eight years. And they’re really a growing focus in Nigeria and now appears to be the target of these strikes.
CHANG: OK. And as to the number of casualties from these strikes, what kind of information do we have?
AKINWOTU: Well, so far, the details have been scarce. We don’t know the number of casualties, and, in fact, there are some local politicians in the area where the strikes were launched who’ve said, actually, they’re not aware of any casualties at all. So the details are still emerging. What’s adding to the confusion around these strikes is that ISIS militants are not, in fact, the major actors in the region compared, at least, to other larger and more violent groups known as bandits who control large amounts of territory and have been the major security threat in the region. President Trump said ISIS was primarily targeting Christians, but that’s also in dispute. I spoke to James Barnett. He’s a research fellow at the Hudson Institute, which is a conservative think tank based in Washington, D.C.
JAMES BARNETT: These Jihadist groups, in many cases, they have attacked Christian communities. But the areas where these Jihadist groups are operating, for the most part, these are Muslim majority areas. A lot of the victims of these groups have actually been Muslim.
CHANG: Well, how has Nigeria’s government responded to these strikes?
AKINWOTU: Well, they’ve tried to respond to the sense of shock, really, that these attacks in Nigeria have provoked and assert that they were aware all along that this was a joint operation authorized by the president, Bola Tinubu. But they faced intense questions, really, about how much they knew about the strikes. And there’s also a debate around whether Nigeria, which is really eager to reassure the U.S. that it’s taking insecurity seriously, is really strong enough to control how U.S. military operations play out from here on.
CHANG: That is NPR’s Emmanuel Akinwotu in Lagos, Nigeria. Thank you, Emmanuel.
AKINWOTU: Thanks for having me.
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