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
These strikes signal an increased interest in the country by the U.S. who have largely withdrawn from Africa during this administration.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.
Global Conflict Reporting 
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