On the night of May 15–16, U.S. and Nigerian forces carried out a joint operation that killed a senior Islamic State commander in Nigeria, in what both governments called a strategic blow to the militant group. Trump announced the operation in a late-night Truth Social post, writing: “Tonight, at my direction, brave American forces and the Armed Forces of Nigeria flawlessly executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the most active terrorist in the world from the battlefield.”
Trump identified the target as Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, whom he described as “second in command of ISIS globally.” According to U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control documents, al-Minuki was born in 1982 in the northeastern Nigerian state of Borno, which borders Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. Before pledging allegiance to ISIS in 2015, he was a prominent Boko Haram leader and was linked to the 2018 kidnapping of more than 100 schoolgirls in Dapchi, Yobe State. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth identified him as the senior ISIS General Directorate of Provinces Emir, “responsible for overseeing the planning of attacks, directing the hostage-taking and managing financial operations.”
Analysts, however, dispute the “number two globally” characterization, saying al-Minuki was the deputy to Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the leader of the Islamic State West African Province, who was reported to have died in 2021. Either way, it is true that President Trump has killed a top ISWAP leader and Biden didn’t.
Nigerian President Tinubu’s office confirmed that al-Minuki was killed along with “several of his lieutenants, during a strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin. A spokesperson for Tinubu said al-Minuki “had been under surveillance for some time,” and that “when he was identified and located around Lake Chad, both the US and Nigerian government felt it was the right time to strike.”
One complication: in 2024, al-Minuki was listed among suspected ISWAP/Boko Haram commanders killed in Kaduna State. The spokesperson acknowledged the earlier claim but explained it was “a case of mistaken identity or misattribution.”
This was not the first U.S. strike in Nigeria under Trump. In what Trump called a “Christmas present” last December, the U.S. military launched strikes on ISIS in northwest Nigeria, killing multiple members according to AFRICOM.
In February, the U.S. sent troops to Nigeria to advise its military, and in March, expanded the partnership further. Hegseth stated: “Back in November 2025, President Trump declared to the world that we will help protect Christians in Nigeria and instructed the Department of War to prepare for action. So, for months, we hunted this top ISIS leader in Nigeria who was killing Christians, and we killed him, and his entire posse.”
Malik Samuel, a senior researcher at Good Governance Africa specializing in Nigerian insurgent groups, called the strike significant: “If confirmed, the killing of Al-Mainuki is huge because this is the first time a security agency has killed someone this high in the ranking of ISWAP.” Dennis Amachree, former director of Nigeria’s Department of State Services, told Al Jazeera the killing “is going to create a huge vacuum in the leadership and financing of ISWAP,” adding that “the group’s ability to move funds across borders, acquire high-end drone technology, and coordinate with administrative cells outside West Africa will face immediate friction.”
A Nigerian army statement described al-Minuki as a “key” operational and strategic figure whose “death removes a critical node through which ISIS coordinated and directed operations across different regions of the world.”
Analysts caution against overstating the blow, however. One called the killing “a tactical win” for the Tinubu administration but said ISWAP remains “a serious security concern.” In 2025, Boko Haram and ISWAP escalated their campaigns, launching daily attacks on civilians and security forces in their strongholds of Yobe and Borno states, and in March 2025, ISWAP began a renewed offensive in Borno, carrying out sophisticated assaults on military installations and seizing control of strategic sites.
For Christians in the part of Nigeria where I have been reporting, the Middle Belt region, the strikes were seen as a welcome sign that someone cares and is trying to help. However, they are unlikely to have a significant impact on the problems these communities are facing.
In Middle Belt areas such as Plateau State and Kaduna State, the primary perpetrators are Fulani extremists, not ISWAP. While the Nigerian government is incentivized to support strikes against ISWAP because the group destabilizes the region and attacks everyone, including other Muslims, the government appears far less motivated to confront, or even clearly identify, the Fulani extremist problem.
The U.S. strike targets ISWAP, which is primarily active in the far northeast, Borno and Yobe, not the Middle Belt states of Plateau, Benue, Kaduna, and Taraba, where the majority of Christian deaths occur at the hands of Fulani militias. According to Open Doors, Fulani militants are responsible for 55% of recorded Christian deaths between 2019 and 2023, with their violence concentrated in the predominantly Christian farming communities of the Middle Belt. Since Palm Sunday 2026, International Christian Concern recorded more than 200 Nigerians killed by Fulani militias,157 of them Christians, in attacks across Plateau, Benue, Kaduna, and Taraba states, with gunmen arriving at night, opening fire on villages, and retreating before security forces arrived.
The Nigerian government has arrested and prosecuted members of Boko Haram and ISWAP, but Open Doors notes the same level of prosecution is largely absent with Fulani militants, with hundreds of suspects arrested over the years and then released without charge or trial. Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Makurdi described the situation in a speech to the European Parliament as “nothing short of a Jihad clothed in many names: terrorism, kidnappings, killer herdsmen, banditry, other militia groups,” calling on the international community to abandon what he termed a “conspiracy of silence.”
Among Nigeria’s Christians, the U.S. strikes against ISIS have been widely welcomed. Pam Davo, a Christian farmer from Nigeria’s Middle Belt, told The Gateway Pundit that local Christians were praying for U.S. intervention. He said he was “very happy” when he heard the news of the strike, explaining that eliminating senior leaders weakens the chain of command responsible for planning attacks and directing operations against civilians.
According to Davo, many Christians in Plateau State believe dismantling the leadership structure of ISIS-linked groups could help reduce violence in the region. Speaking about his faith, Davo said he remained committed to Christianity despite the violence facing his community. “I believe so much in Jesus Christ,” he said, adding that Christ “is the only way, the truth, and the light.”
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