US Army Lieutenant General John Brennan, deputy commander of United States Africa Command since April 2024, poses during a portrait session in Abuja on January 24, 2026.
The US military is increasing materiel deliveries and intelligence sharing with Nigeria, a top general told AFP, as part of a broader American push to work with African militaries to go after Islamic State linked militants. The Pentagon has also kept open lines of communication with militaries in the junta-led Sahel countries of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali. The increased cooperation with Abuja follows Washington’s diplomatic pressure on Nigeria over jihadist violence in the country, but also as the US military is becoming “more aggressive” in pursuing Islamic State linked targets on the continent, Lieutenant General John Brennan told AFP.
Christmas Day strikes by the United States on northwest Nigeria targeted militants linked to an Islamic State wing largely active in neighbouring Niger, a top US Africa Command lieutenant general told AFP.
“The targets were areas that all terrorist groups from the Sahel use as a staging area. The most recent information we received from the Nigerians was it was ISIS Sahel related,” John Brennan said in an interview on the sidelines of a US-Nigeria security meeting last week, referring to the Islamic State Sahel Province group.
Analysts have been worried about ISSP’s spread from the Sahel into coastal West African countries like Nigeria.
The clarification comes on the heels of reports and public scare of the possibility of civilians also being casualties of the strikes.
United States President Donald Trump said US forces conducted “powerful and deadly” strikes against Islamic State militants in northwestern Nigeria on Christmas Day, after he warned the group to stop killing Christians in the country.
The Department of Defense said “multiple ISIS terrorists” were killed in an attack conducted at the request of Nigerian authorities, but few details were provided.
The strikes hit IS targets on Christmas Day, according to Trump.
“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” he said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
“May God Bless our Military,” he said, adding, “MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.”
The US Africa Command also confirmed the strikes in an X post. They noted that the strike was “at the request of Nigerian authorities in (Sokoto state) killing multiple ISIS terrorists.”
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth also took to X to praise his department’s readiness to take action in Nigeria, and said he was “grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation.”
The attacks marked the first by US forces in Nigeria under Trump, and came after the Republican leader unexpectedly berated Nigeria in October and November, saying Christians in the country faced an “existential threat” that amounted to “genocide”.
AFP/Channels Television