Global Conflict Reporting

Category: Nigeria

  • U.S. Christmas Day strikes in Nigeria.

    By. Scott Jackson

    12.26.2025

    On the 25th of December 2025 US forces launched a wave of strikes on ISIS-West Africa (ISIS-WA)  targets in Sokoto State in Northwestern Nigeria. The White House cited attacks on members of the African country’s Christian population as the reason for the strikes.

    The attacks were carried with reportedly more than a dozen BGM-109 Tomahawk Land Attack Cruise Missiles (TLAM) launched from the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer, USS Paul Ignatius (DDG-117), which its believed the ship was in the Gulf of Guinea at the time. Video was released by AFRICOM on Christmas Day showing the launch of a single TLAM.

    Locals reported explosions in the small town of Jabo about 10 miles from the state’s capital. 

    The attack was carried out with the support of the Nigerian government who in a statement mentioned exchanging intelligence with the U.S.

    While the White House says the strikes are because ISIS-WA are targeting and killing Christians, we lack a specific recent incident that shows this group is specificly killing based on religion. ISIS-WA often targets government and civil defense forces as well as their rival in the region Boko Haram. Religion isn’t usually a factor or at least not the main factor as ISIS-WA, more often than not, kills Muslim and other religions as well as Christians. All that being said Nigeria has had a rash of kidnappings lately and in one instance gunmen abducted hundreds of schoolchildren from a Catholic school woth the aim to get ransom money

    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/amp/world/nigerians-welcome-release-of-130-schoolchildren-and-teachers-kidnapped-from-catholic-school

    These strikes signal an increased interest in the country by the U.S. who have largely withdrawn from Africa during this administration. Earlier this year US president Donald Trump declared Nigeria a “country of concern” which could be a precursor to stronger involvement by the U.S. like sanctions.

  • Late night attack by Boko Haram leaves more than 70 dead in Nigeria.

    By. Scott Jackson

    09/06/2025

    Last night, the Jihadist group, Boko Haram killed more than 70 people in an overnight attack in the village of Darul Jamal on the border of Nigeria and Cameroon in the Borno State.

    Dozens of armed men arrived on motorcycles around 8:30pm on Friday night and started firing indiscriminately. Residents say the gunmen went house to house killing the men and leaving the women behind.

    The leader of the village, who asked to remain anonymous told Reuters “They went house to house, killing men and leaving women behind. Almost every household is affected,”

    He said that they have recovered 70 bodies on Saturday morning but thag more were still missing .

    Malam Bukar fled with his wife and three kids, he said “They came shouting, shooting everyone in sight.”

    The governor of the Borno state, Babagana Zulum, visited the village on Saturday, the day after the attack and spoke to AFP news agency.

    “It’s very sad, this community was resettled some months ago and they went about their normal business,”

    He also said

    “The numerical strength of the Nigerian army is not enough to contain the situation,”

    Zulum added that a newly established force called the Forest Guards was set to bolster security personnel in the embattled region.

    Images of Nigerian Forest Guard. Each region is expect to recruit anywhere from 2,000-5,000 to help deal with ongoing security concerns. They will fight poachers and hopefully help deal with the threat of terrorist.

    This attack comes as Islamic Jihadist have been making a resurgence in the area with Boko Haram and their rivals, the west African branch of the Islamic State (ISWAP) both stepping up attacks.

    “Western education is forbidden” a quick history of Boko Haram.

    Map showing the area of activity from Boko Haram.

    Boko Haram has existed in Nigeria, in one form or another since the early 90’s. The group calls itself Jama‘atu Ahl as-Sunnah li-Da‘awati wal-Jihad” (JASDJ; Group of the Sunni People for the Calling and Jihad) and “Nigerian Taliban”.

    The group looks to overthrow the current goverment in Nigeria and replace it with a regime based on Islamic law. Boko Haram stands for “Western education is forbidden”. Boko being a holdover word for book from the time of English colonialism. In 2009 thr group suffered a major setback when clashes with Nigerian security forces left hundred of their members dead. They have been rebuilding ever since and have become much more dangerous under the leadership of their former second-in-command, Abubakar Shekau who claimed leadership of the group in 2010. Since that time the group has displayed more effective operational terror capabilities, utilizing improvised explosive device (IED), vehicle-borne IED (VBIED), and female suicide attacks against a wide range of targets. In 2011 the group bombed the UN headquarters in Abuja killing over 20.

    Abubakar Shekau

    In 2014 Boko Haram was carrying out near daily attacks against Christian people or Nigerian goverment forces, schools, the media, politicians and even other Muslims they viewed as collaborators.