Description: US President Donald Trump announced that under his executive command, naval forces in the African military theater launched precision strikes on ISIS camps in the northwestern Sokoto state in Nigeria. Tomahawk missiles have been fired from US naval forces stationed off the coast of Ghana while several fatalities were identified according to official statements from the US Defense Department. Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry stated that the attacks have been conducted after close coordination and cooperation with Nigerian security and intelligence services while the statement also claimed that the attacks had nothing to do with religiously motivated targeting of civilians, Christian or Muslim. Trump’s official statement claimed the attacks were conducted due to the consistent and vicious targeting of the country’s Christian population by radical Islamist terrorists such as ISIS. Groups monitoring the situation such as ACLED have claimed that the attacks had no religious background since ISIS has equally targeted Muslim and Christian population, while most of the Christian population in the country is located in the southern parts of Nigeria.
Impact: The US airstrikes arrive after repeated warnings from Trump’s administration towards Nigeria and the country’s designation as a country of particular concern. The conflicting statements on both sides indicate that the attacks weren’t that closely coordinated and planned while the casualty reports discrepancies also raise suspicions regarding the success rate of the bombings. Nigeria has undoubtedly faced mounting security crises in several parts of the country and has continuously failed at successfully addressing and counteracting threats from terrorist and militant organizations. The attacks could indicate an indirect reassertion on part of the US in times when Russia and China have growing influence and presence on the African continent. Direct intervention and ground operations at this point are highly unlikely, however, surgical strikes and further precision targeting with air and naval assets as well as continuous surveillance operations should continue in the short to mid – term period.