Nigerians responded after the US strikes against the Islamic State – National camp
Sanusi Madabo, a 40-year-old farmer in the Nigerian village of Jabo, was getting ready for bed on Thursday night when he heard a loud noise that sounded like a plane crashing. He rushed outside his mud house with his wife to see the sky glow red.
The light burned for hours, Madabo said: “It was almost noon.”
He didn’t learn until later that he had seen the US attack the so-called Islamic State camp.
US President Donald Trump announced on Thursday night that the US had launched a “strong and deadly strike” against Islamic State militants in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has confirmed that it is cooperating with the US government in its strike.
Residents of Jabo, a town in northwestern Nigeria, Sokoto, told the Associated Press in an interview on Friday that they were gripped by fear and confusion during the airstrikes.
They also said that the town has never been attacked by armed gangs as part of the violence that the US says is on the rise, although such attacks are frequent in neighboring areas.
“As it approached our area, the heat intensified,” recalled Abubakar Sani, who lives just a few houses from where the explosion occurred.
“Our rooms started shaking, then a fire broke out,” he told the AP. “The Nigerian government should take appropriate measures to protect us as citizens. We have never faced anything like this before.”
The Nigerian military did not respond to an AP request asking how many areas were targeted.
‘A new phase in an old conflict’
The strikes are the result of months of intense conflict between the West African country and the US
The Trump administration says Nigeria is facing a Christian genocide, a claim the Nigerian government has denied.
Get daily world news
Get the day’s top news, politics, economics, and current affairs, delivered to your inbox once a day.
But now the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Nigeria has said that the strikes were the result of intelligence sharing and strategic cooperation between the two governments.
Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s foreign minister, called the airstrikes “a new phase in an old conflict” and said he expected more strikes to follow.
“For us, it’s something that has been going on,” added Tuggar, referring to the attacks that have been targeting Christians and Muslims in Nigeria for years.
Bulama Bukarti, who is a security analyst in sub-Saharan Africa at the Tony Blair Institute, said that the fear of the citizens is accompanied by a lack of information.
Residents say that no one was injured, and security guards have cordoned off the entire area.
But the Nigerian government has not released details about the militants who were targeted or any post-strike assessments of the injured.
“What can help to ease the tension is for the American and Nigerian governments to reveal who was targeted, what was attacked, and what has happened so far,” said Bukarti. Such information “is still lacking, and when governments are not clear, there is more panic on the ground, and that is what will fuel tensions.”
Foreign soldiers were operating in Nigeria
Analysts say that these strikes may have been aimed at the Lakurawa group, which has recently entered into a security crisis in Nigeria.
The group’s first attack was recorded in 2018 in the north-west region before the Nigerian government officially declared its presence last year. The formation of this group has been documented by security researchers as it is mainly carried out by foreigners from the Sahel region of Africa.
However, experts say that the relationship between the Lakurawa group and the Islamic State is not proven. The Islamic State West African Province, the branch of ISIS in Nigeria, has its strongholds in the north-east of the country, where it is currently engaged in a power struggle with its parent organization, Boko Haram.
“What may have happened is that, in collaboration with the American government, Nigeria identified Lakurawa as dangerous and identified the camps belonging to the group,” said Bukarti.
Meanwhile, some locals feel threatened.
Aliyu Garba, a village leader in Jabo, told AP that the debris left by the strikes was scattered, and residents rushed to the scene. Others pick up pieces of debris, hoping to trade for valuable metal, while Garba said he fears they might get hurt.
For 17-year-old Balira Sa’idu, the strike hit her hard as she was getting ready to get married.
“I have to think about my marriage, but now I’m scared,” she said. “The strike has changed everything, my family is afraid, I don’t know if it is safe to continue with the marriage plan in Jabo.”
© 2025 The Canadian Press
