Violence against Christians and Muslims in Nigeria is tragic, but the United States has no strategic interests in going after terrorists there. Since returning to office, Trump has quietly ramped up U.S. counterterrorism operations in Africa — especially in Somalia — and has ordered up war plans for Nigeria. President Donald Trump is threatening to go “guns-a-blazing” into Nigeria to destroy Islamic terrorists for killing local Christians, which Trump labeled a “genocide” last week. Can the American strikes avoid collateral damage on the Christian population which the action is supposed to protect? This would negatively affect the tactical operations of the military intervention and the strategic calculations thereby limiting whatever successes they hope to achieve.
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US Intelligence and Military analysts believe that although President Trump now has the full authorization of the US Congress to intervene militarily in Nigeria as he had sought, it is not envisaged that a full-blown military campaign will follow.
Secondly, President Trump has not shown proof to the American public that what is happening in Nigeria constitutes a direct threat to American interests or to any of its allies. An approval in the American Congress does not amount to approval by the International community which must be secured through global consensus as a sine qua non for such an action contemplated by the Americans. There is no question that the Americans have the capacity to carry out their military threats on Nigeria. The Americans envisage that in the coming years, Africa is poised to be the new frontier of strategic competition with the Chinese, and being the most populous country and the largest economy on the continent, Nigeria will be a key factor in this geo-political game. President Trump is likely to throw in the possibility of ‘’regime change’’ to force the Tinubu administration to the negotiating table wherein the Americans would up the ante and seek economic concessions on mineral extraction rights among others. What the US government really intends to achieve with the Military Intervention
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- The Americans envisage that in the coming years, Africa is poised to be the new frontier of strategic competition with the Chinese, and being the most populous country and the largest economy on the continent, Nigeria will be a key factor in this geo-political game.
- CNN’s Stefano Pozzebon was at Simon Bolivar Intl Airport in Venezuela when US deportation flights landed, despite President Trump declaring the country’s airspace should be considered closed.
- The Niger operation began as a logistical support mission for French aircraft but within a couple of years, the United States had 1,000 troops there fighting terrorists directly.
The Americans would also likely seek to establish a military base in Nigeria in effect, to counter the growing presence of its strategic rival, China in the country. As the Act says, the US bombing strike being put together by American military planners is couched as a humanitarian action to allow for religious freedom now allegedly being denied adherents of the Christian faith by Islamist jihadists in Nigeria. ‘’ The US is not at war with the Nigerian government and people’’ Steve McDale a Washington D.C based analyst told me. Lengthy talks between US negotiators and Russia’s President Vladimir Putin ended without a breakthrough on a potential deal to end the war in Ukraine, a Kremlin aide said. CNN’s Stefano Pozzebon was at Simon Bolivar Intl Airport in Venezuela when US deportation flights landed, despite President Trump declaring the country’s airspace should be considered closed. The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas members, alleging the militant group violated the ceasefire agreement injuring five soldiers.
ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The United States will restrict visas for Nigerians and their family members involved in mass killings and violence against Christians in the West African country, the U.S. As of the time of this report, aside from Brant’s posts, neither the Nigerian government nor the United States had issued any official statement confirming a US military operation on Nigerian soil. “Both leaders discussed ways to make tangible progress on stopping violence against Christians in Nigeria and combatting West African jihadist terrorist groups.” “On Nov. 20, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth welcomed a delegation of security leaders from the Federal Republic of Nigeria led by their National Security Advisor, Mr. Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to the Pentagon,” the statement said.
This will help determine what subsequent steps to be taken by the US government. The brief for these teams is to reconnoiter and gather enough intelligence on the targeted areas to enable precision drone strikes. In anticipation of the Congressional approval, as is standard US military practice, advance teams of operatives may have been inserted into Nigeria to ‘’case the joint’’ in military parlance. What Intelligence and Military analysts believe will happen are targeted drone strikes at Terrorists camps and their infrastructure.
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He further added, “According to a private source familiar with the military deal between the US and Nigeria, the US will be allowed to conduct UAV airstrikes against terrorist targets inside Nigeria, the scope only include unmanned aircrafts (UAVs), not fighter jets or bombers. Earlier on Thursday, Brant had stated, “The US Department of War is already conducting reconnaissance operations in western Nigeria from their base in Ghana, without (any public) permission announced by the Nigerian government, possible agreements being signed behind closed doors.” Trump may think he can keep military action limited to some airstrikes. But as has done in Ukraine and the Middle East we can expect a transactional president Trump to use the threat of American military intervention to extract from the Tinubu government some strategic and economic concessions.
US allegedly preparing UAV strikes in Nigeria as covert ISR flights reported
If President Trump goes ahead and initiate military action on Nigeria, before long there will likely be negative reactions in America. In addition to helping to guide home the strikes, they will also be expected to provide situational assessment on the impact of the strikes on both the terrorists and the people of the targeted areas. He further stated that ‘’the US government is going after the Terrorists who have for quite some time now wreaked havoc on innocent Nigerian people having watched with dismay the carnage and humanitarian crises the terrorists have inflicted on Nigeria resulting in hundreds of thousands of lives lost. Titled ‘’Nigeria Religious Freedom Protection and Counter-Terrorism Act of 2025’’, this measure effectively puts Nigeria in the crosshairs of potential US military action in the not distant future. The government has recently deployed security forces to deal with the issue. After Trump’s statements, Fox News aired multiple segments discussing potential U.S. action and the reported persecution of Christians in the country.
The move follows the designation of Nigeria by the U.S. as a “country of particular concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act last month. He added that the policy would apply to other governments or individuals engaged in violations of religious freedom, and that the restrictions are in line with a new policy under the Immigration and Nationality Act. The attacks on the community are part of a longstanding and extremely complex security crisis in Nigeria — a nation recently singled out by U.S. SaharaReporters.com is an outstanding, groundbreaking news website that encourages citizen journalists to report ongoing corruption and government malfeasance in Africa. Kidnapping for ransom, killings, and banditry continue to occur daily, leaving Nigerians to grapple with the widespread insecurity.
Instead of US military ops in Nigeria, consider China’s playbook
Both the Germans and Iraqis at the time never thought such precipitate actions would eventually bring total ruin and disaster to their countries. The Iraqi war too was triggered by the illegal invasion of Kuwait by Iraq which ironically was led by the Americans. The Americans may dismiss these relevant questions, but let us not forget that both the first and second world wars occurred when Germany decided to tip the balance of European geo-politics by invading Belgium and Poland respectively.
Last month, Trump also said he has ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for potential military action in Nigeria following the claims of Christian persecution. Before the meeting, the US President had threatened to carry out a military operation in Nigeria to wipe out those he described as “Islamic terrorists”. A security expert, tracker, and a jihadi expert with special focus on the Sahel, Brant Philip, has claimed that the United States has begun conducting operations inside Nigeria as part of an agreement with the Nigerian government aimed at tackling escalating terrorism.
Kinetic strikes sometimes bring immediate successes, but long-term gains are fleeting. Last year, for instance, American troops in Niger were left stranded, short on supplies and reinforcement, after the government there cut off outside access to their bases. The use of force against African terrorist groups generally doesn’t work, as Nigeria and Somalia both show, and the dangers of escalation are high. U.S. airstrikes and a ground incursion are reportedly now on the table.
Has President Trump and his Gung-Ho team of belligerents thought about the possibility of a massive pushback in America and the world which will consider his action as a dangerous violation of the International order? Can the Americans cope with the possible widespread panic and pandemonium that will follow the strikes? Without squaring the circle on these factors, the Americans would be figuratively walking through a blind alley even with their massive military capabilities and advantages in Nigeria. Although the American Congress may have approved the intervention, that does not mean that the American people will agree with the course of action being contemplated on Nigeria.
Following the designation of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” by Donald Trump over alleged genocide against Christians, the Nigerian government rejected the label and subsequently sent a delegation to the US. Reacting to his posts, former presidential aide Bashir Ahmad condemned the disclosures and accused Brant of revealing sensitive information to ISWAP. “The US Air Force ISR aircraft returned for the third day in a row to spy over ISWAP’s “Mantiqah Krinwa” in Borno state on the fringes of Lake Chad, northeast Nigeria, the aircraft is currently circling over the area and took off from Accra, Ghana, as usual,” he said.
Pressure is building for action and important meetings underway. He often blusters in public to try to get what he wants. But the long suffering Nigerian people must be spared a tragedy of monumental proportions on top of the trauma of insecurity they are now facing, which is hardly of their own making but of the total abdication of responsibility by their leaders. Before they reap the unintended consequences of their contemplated military interventions in Nigeria, President Trump would do well to change tactics.
- The Israeli military said it was targeting Hamas members, alleging the militant group violated the ceasefire agreement injuring five soldiers.
- “The United States is taking decisive action in response to the mass killings and violence against Christians by radical Islamic terrorists, Fulani ethnic militias, and other violent actors in Nigeria and beyond,” U.S.
- Despite robust U.S. military operations in the region, deaths from terrorism increased 2,000% between 2007 and 2022.
- The Americans may dismiss these relevant questions, but let us not forget that both the first and second world wars occurred when Germany decided to tip the balance of European geo-politics by invading Belgium and Poland respectively.
- But the long suffering Nigerian people must be spared a tragedy of monumental proportions on top of the trauma of insecurity they are now facing, which is hardly of their own making but of the total abdication of responsibility by their leaders.
- In addition to helping to guide home the strikes, they will also be expected to provide situational assessment on the impact of the strikes on both the terrorists and the people of the targeted areas.
According to that earlier account, the agreement would allow only unmanned aircraft to be used for kinetic operations, explicitly excluding American fighter jets or bombers. These reports follow an earlier claim—also originating from a source cited by Philip—that the United States is preparing to conduct UAV strikes inside Nigeria under a new but undisclosed security arrangement. In a series of posts on X, Philip said a manned U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft on Saturday flew over Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) strongholds near the southwestern shores of Lake Chad in Borno State.
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China learned these lessons the hard way with its abrasive wolf-warrior diplomacy a few years back, which created severe international backlash. Trump also needs to stop blustering threats in public. Today, there are close to 30 U.S. military bases in Africa — there were none prior to 9/11. All U.S. counterterrorism wars in Africa since 9/11 started small, only to expand to U.S. boots on the ground. Today, the leading terrorist group in Somalia, al-Shabab, is arguably stronger than ever. Boko Haram was virtually destroyed by Nigerian security forces in 2009.
Likewise, in Somalia, where the U.S. has invested heavily in air and ground operations since 2017, the picture looks a lot like Nigeria — every surge of success is soon followed by a resurgence in terrorist strength. Despite robust U.S. military operations in the region, deaths from terrorism increased 2,000% between 2007 and 2022. A renewed U.S. fight against Nigerian terrorists today is likely to fail and also do little to protect Christians there. U.S. counterterrorism policy tends to fuel anti-Americanism that both aids terrorist recruitment (e.g. al-Shabab in Somalia) and sometimes threatens U.S. military personnel directly. According to standard threat measures used by the U.S. government, that makes both groups local insurgencies, not global-reach terrorist organizations that threaten U.S. citizens.
He added that the aircraft had taken off from Accra, Ghana. Sign up to receive a daily email of today’s top military news stories from Stars and Stripes and top news outlets from around the world. Drop the big talk and find ways other than military force, like diplomacy and economic engagement, to pursue U.S. interests abroad. Concerns about neocolonialism have already led countries across Africa to turn away from the West toward Russia and China — a trend that unilateral force in Nigeria would only exacerbate. Today, it’s dropped all that and is now thriving in Africa through almost exclusively economic, not military, means.
Tuberville, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has recently spotlighted Islamist violence in Nigeria and urged tougher U.S. posture. The warning followed his move to put Nigeria back on the list of “Countries of Particular Concern” for religious-freedom violations. Trump on Sunday said there “could be” U.S. troops or airstrikes in Nigeria to stop what he called mass killings of Christians, remarks he delivered aboard Air Force One. This one would be going and helping innocent people that would be able to take back over their country.” Also, there has been an uptick in the activities of armed gangs in the central part of the country who kidnap locals for ransom.
On Sunday afternoon, he wrote again that the United States ISR aircraft had returned to spy over ISWAP’s Mantiqah Krinwa. “The American counterpart will mainly fill the ISR gaps of the Nigerian army with manned and/or unmanned aircrafts, and will likely (still unconfirmed) use the Kainji Air Base in Niger State as a launchpad.” He stated on Saturday that a United States aircraft carried out an operation in Borno State, noting that the aircraft took off from Accra, Ghana. Despite the mounting speculation, both the Nigerian and U.S. governments have remained silent—neither confirming nor denying that American ISR flights or drone-strike preparations are underway. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth met with Nigeria’s National Security Adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, in Washington for high-level carruth talks on terrorist threats and rising attacks on Christian communities. Former presidential aide Bashir Ahmad accused Philip of recklessly sharing sensitive operational details that could aid ISWAP fighters.
