On Christmas Day, Trump announced that the U.S. Department of War had carried out air strikes against Islamic State militants in the northwest region of Nigeria. The U.S. military’s Africa Command, also known as AFRICOM, confirmed on X, “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.”
This comes after Trump threatened to invade Nigeria and go “guns-a-blazing” over the false claims of a “Christian genocide” in November. Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu, asserted last month that Nigeria would reject intervention but “welcome U.S. cooperation” in addressing the security crisis. The Nigerian Foreign Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, told TV broadcasters that he had been in talks with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio to provide intelligence. Shortly after the two’s discussion, strikes were launched with President Tinubu’s greenlight.
Tuggar has indicated that the strikes launched in the northwest of Nigeria were an “ongoing process” that would involve other unnamed countries. Despite the claims of a Christian genocide long being debunked, Trump and the right-wing are pushing this conspiracy to embolden their justification for military operations in the country through AFRICOM. Additionally, their racist and anti-Muslim rhetoric distracts from the reality on the ground which is that both Christians and Muslims are affected by the security crisis.
Nigerians have asserted that Trump’s threats are a classic form of imperialist intervention greenlit by Tinubu’s government. The current Nigerian government under Tinubu is not only pro-West, but completely subservient to the political objectives of the United States. Any U.S. or Western-backed intervention in the nation masks the underlying interests at present.
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country and is home to vast fossil fuel wealth. Crude oil and natural gas are the backbone of its economy. Yet millions of Nigerians are facing a growing security and economic crisis exacerbated by Tinubu’s government. The Nigerian government has failed to rectify problems of mass unemployment, lack of basic infrastructure, and poverty. The U.S. wants to exploit these challenges ultimately to secure energy resources and use Africa as a battleground for its new Cold War.
The challenges facing Nigerian people will come from their demands for sovereign solutions independent from U.S. imperialism. Millions of Nigerians across the entire region reject all forms of U.S. military intervention and demand Tinubu’s government internally resolve the multifaceted challenges.
Stop bombing Nigeria! U.S. out of Africa!
Featured image: Donald Trump and former Nigerian President Buhari at the White House in 2018. Credit: Flickr/Andrea Hanks.
