Nigeria provided US with intelligence for strikes on militants, foreign minister says
Nigeria provided the US with intelligence on jihadists before the strikes that took place in the country on Christmas Day, its foreign ministry said on Friday.
On Thursday, the US president, Donald Trump, said the US military had carried out strikes against Islamic State militants in north-west Nigeria, after spending weeks decrying the group for targeting Christians.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, the president said: “Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!
“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. The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.”
Now, Nigerian foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, has told broadcaster ChannelsTV that he was on the phone with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and that Nigeria “provided” the intelligence.
“We spoke twice. We spoke for 19 minutes before the strike and then we spoke again for another five minutes before it went on,” Tuggar said.
He added that they spoke “extensively” and that President Bola Tinubu gave “the go-ahead” to launch the strikes.
Tuggar did not rule out further strikes, describing them as an “ongoing process” that would also involve other countries.
In an interview with the BBC, Tuggar insisted the strikes had “nothing to do with a particular religion”. He said the operation did not have “anything to do with Christmas, it could be any other day – it is to do with attacking terrorists who have been killing Nigerians”.
Trump has previously said he would launch a “guns-a-blazing” US military intervention in Nigeria, claiming that the country’s government has been inadequate in its efforts to prevent attacks on Christians by Islamist groups.
Key events
Closing summary
This is it from the US politics live team for today. Here are the main developments of the day at a glance:
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Nigeria has confirmed it provided intelligence to the US ahead of Christmas Day strikes authorized by Donald Trump. The country’s foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, said he spoke to the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, before and after the strikes and confirmed Nigeria’s president had given the “go-ahead”.
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After Thursday’s strikes, Nigeria’s foreign ministry praised the cooperation with the US, but pointedly refused to acknowledge US actions had anything to do with the persecution of Christians.
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Members of Donald Trump’s party welcomed the strikes as a sign of the US president’s resolve. West Virginia congressman Riley Moore wrote on X: “President Trump has been clear that the killing of Christians in Nigeria must end. As I stated at the outset: Do not test President Trump‘s resolved [stet] in this matter. Tonight’s strike in coordination with the Nigerian government is just the first step to ending the slaughter of Christians and the security crisis affecting all Nigerians.” Arkansas senator Tom Cotton wrote to “commend President Trump, Secretary Hegseth, and our brave troops for these strikes against bloodthirsty ISIS”.
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The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has warned of new strikes against Islamic State targets in north-western Nigeria. Writing on X, he said: “The president was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end. The [Pentagon] is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight – on Christmas. More to come …
The US strikes did not hit anyone and landed in an empty farmland, the Guardian understands.
However, what is being spoken about on the ground is that the Nigerian air force mistakenly bombed an area just an hour away from the same place last Christmas, killing at least 10 people.
These airstrikes affected residents of the Gidan Sama and Rumtuwa communities in the Silame local government area of the north-western Sokoto state.
Sources told the media that the communities are located near Surame Forest, a known hideout for bandits.
The villagers only received compensation five days ago, according to the air force’s Facebook page.
“Recounting the circumstances of the incident, the [chief of the air staff] explained that the air operation was conducted under Operation Fasan Yamma following intelligence on suspected terrorists transiting through the affected communities,” the post read.
The US defence secretary warns of new strikes against Islamic State targets
The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has warned of new strikes against Islamic State targets in north-western Nigeria, hours after the US military took action against militant camps in what Donald Trump has characterised as efforts to stop the killing of Christians.
Writing on X, he said: “The president was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end. The [Pentagon] is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight – on Christmas. More to come …
“Grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation. Merry Christmas!”
The President was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end.
The @DeptofWar is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight — on Christmas. More to come…
Grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation.
Merry Christmas! https://t.co/k5Q3Qd4ClE
— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) December 25, 2025
This comes after Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s foreign minister, said on Friday that the US strikes, which came after Trump had accused Nigeria’s government of failing to stop Christians being killed in the country, were “part of joint ongoing operations”.
Nigeria is officially secular and its population is almost evenly split between Muslims (53%) and Christians (45%). Violence against Christians has drawn attention from the religious right in the US, which has framed it as persecution. Nigeria’s government has pointed out that armed groups target Christians and Muslims.
Nigeria provided the intelligence for the airstrikes in Sokoto state, Tuggar told the country’s Channels Television on Friday. He said he had spoken to his US counterpart, Marco Rubio, for 19 minutes, then called the Nigerian president, Bola Tinubu, to get his go-ahead, before speaking to Rubio again for another five minutes.
“We have been working closely with the Americans,” Tuggar said. “This is what we’ve always been hoping for, to work with the Americans, to work with other countries, to combat terrorism, to stop the death of innocent Nigerians … It’s a collaborative effort.”
The US military’s Africa Command (Africom) said the strikes in Sokoto state had been carried out in coordination with Nigerian authorities. An earlier Africom statement posted on X and then removed said they had been conducted at the request of Nigerian authorities.
Clashes between Muslim herders and predominantly Christian farming communities in parts of Nigeria have been aggravated by ethnicity and religion, but their roots lie in competition for land and water.
Priests and pastors have increasingly been kidnapped for ransom but some experts say this may be a trend driven by criminal incentives rather than religious discrimination.
Read our full story here, with reporting from Rachel Savage, Eromo Egbejule and Edward Helmore.
A spokesperson from the Pentagon said that the US strikes against Islamist militant groups in northern Nigeria were launched with the west African country’s approval.
“The Department of War worked with the government of Nigeria to carry out these strikes. These strikes were approved by the government of Nigeria,” a Pentagon official said on condition of anonymity, without saying if Nigeria’s military had been involved.
Nigeria may have averted humiliating unilateral military action threatened by Donald Trump a month ago by publicly cooperating on Christmas Day’s airstrikes.
According to Reuters, experts said it is unclear whether such strikes can do much to hinder Islamist militants who have long menaced communities in the area.
This comes after the US military carried out strikes against Islamic State militants in north-west Nigeria, after spending weeks decrying the group for targeting Christians.
Local media reported loud explosions in the village of Jabo in the evening of Christmas Day. Reuters has not been able to confirm whether there were casualties.
Nigeria’s foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, said on Friday that Nigeria had acted jointly with the US but stressed the strikes were not targeting any specific religion.
“Nigeria is a multi-religious country, and we’re working with partners like the US to fight terrorism and protect lives and property,” Tuggar told Nigeria’s Channels Television.
Local outlets have been reporting on the strikes, with daily newspaper the Nation having the news as its front page headline.
Yinka Adegoke, the Africa editor for the news outlet Semafor, told Al Jazeera that these strikes were “ultimately positive”.
“It feels like the Nigerian government is finding itself in a situation where it is under duress from the Trump administration, who have their own … arguments about what is going on in Nigeria, which serve their own purpose,” Adegoke said.
Here are some images of the aftermath of US strikes in Nigeria that have come via the news wires today:
Nigerians across Sokoto state told of their shock at Christmas Day strikes by the United States.
Agence France-Presse spoke to people around Jabo town, who said that their area was sometimes a target of armed “bandit” gangs and jihadists, but was not a stronghold for the groups.
“We heard a loud explosion which shook the whole town and everyone was scared,” said Haruna Kallah from Jabo, some 60 miles (100km) south of Sokoto city near the Niger border.
Donald Trump has claimed there are mass killing of Christians in the country’s armed conflicts.
The Nigerian government and independent analysts reject this framing, noting the west African country faces interlinked security crises that kill both Christian and Muslim civilians.
Kallah told AFP he originally thought the attack was carried out by Lakurawa, the main jihadist group in Sokoto state, adding that there had not been an attack in about two years.
Villagers reportedly found burning fragments from the bombardment on the outskirts of the town.
Ayuba Abdulkarim, another Jabo resident, said: “There was a huge explosion and everyone was terrified and thought the town was under attack from Lakurawa. Luckily no one was hurt, but fragments from the bomb caused damage to walls and roofs of nearby homes.”
Tukur Shehu, resident of Tangaza, a neighbouring district, said two strikes targeted Warriya and Alkassim villages – known to house Lakurawa camps, from where they launch attacks and keep hostages.
Members of Donald Trump’s party welcomed the strikes as a sign of the US president’s resolve.
West Virginia congressman Riley Moore wrote on X: “President Trump has been clear that the killing of Christians in Nigeria must end. As I stated at the outset: Do not test President Trump‘s resolved in this matter. Tonight’s strike in coordination with the Nigerian government is just the first step to ending the slaughter of Christians and the security crisis affecting all Nigerians.”
Arkansas senator Tom Cotton wrote to “commend President Trump, Secretary Hegseth, and our brave troops for these strikes against bloodthirsty ISIS”.
What does the Nigerian government say?
After Thursday’s strikes, Nigeria’s foreign ministry praised the cooperation with the US, but pointedly refused to acknowledge America’s actions had anything to do with the persecution of Christians.
“Terrorist violence in any form, whether directed at Christians, Muslims or other communities, remains an affront to Nigeria’s values and to international peace and security,” the ministry said in a statement.
Successive Nigerian governments have struggled to get a hold on the nation’s deteriorating security crisis, with thousands of people killed and hundreds more abducted in the past few years.
In the north-east, Boko Haram and its splinter groups such as Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap) have waged an insurgency since 2009, killing tens of thousands and displacing millions. In the north-west, heavily armed criminal gangs – often labelled “bandits” – carry out mass kidnappings and raids that affect both Muslim and Christian communities.
Nigeria’s government has previously said in response to Trump’s criticisms that people of many faiths, not just Christians, have suffered at the hands of these groups.
Last month, Nigeria’s president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said the characterisation of Nigeria as a religiously intolerant country did not reflect reality.
“Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so … Nigeria is a country with constitutional guarantees to protect citizens of all faiths.”
Is there religious persecution in Nigeria?
In the past, Nigeria’s government has responded to Trump’s criticisms by saying that people of many faiths, not just Christians, suffer at the hands of extremists groups who operate throughout the country.
Nigeria is officially secular but almost evenly divided between Muslims (53%) and Christians (45%), with the remaining population practising African traditional religions. Violence against Christians has drawn significant international attention, and is often framed as religious persecution, but most analysts argue the situation is more complex and attacks can have varying motivations.
For example, deadly clashes between itinerant Muslim herders and predominantly Christian farming communities are rooted in competition over land and water but exacerbated by religious and ethnic differences. Meanwhile, the kidnappings of priests is seen by many analysts as a trend driven more by money than religious hatred, as they are viewed as influential figures whose worshippers or organisations can mobilise funds quickly.
Why has Trump targeted Nigeria?
Parts of the US right have for years been amplifying claims that Christians are facing persecution in Nigeria. In September, Republican senator Ted Cruz pushed to sanction Nigerian officials who “facilitate violence against Christians and other religious minorities, including by Islamist terrorist groups”.
Claims that Christians face religious persecution overseas have become a major motivating force Trump’s base – and the US president counts evangelical Christians as among his most enthusiastic supporters.
Earlier this year he appeared to act on some of these concerns by designating Nigeria a “country of particular concern” under the US International Religious Freedom Act, which followed weeks of lobbying by American lawmakers and conservative Christian groups. Soon after, he ordered the Pentagon to begin planning for potential military action in the country. At the time, the president said he might go in “guns-a-blazing” if the Nigerian government continued to “allow the killing of Christians”.
What do we know about the strikes?
After spending weeks accusing Nigeria’s government of failing to tackle the persecution of Christians, Donald Trump announced a series of strikes on the west African country on Christmas Day.
The strikes, targeting Islamic State militants in the country’s north, mark the latest overseas military intervention from Trump, who campaigned on a promise to extricate the US from decades of “endless wars” during his 2024 run for president.
In his announcement, Trump said the strikes were aimed at Islamic State militants who have been “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!”
A Defense Department official told the Associated Press that the US worked with Nigeria to carry out the strikes, and that they’d been approved by that country’s government. Nigeria’s ministry of foreign affairs said the cooperation included exchanges of intelligence and strategic coordination.
Zelenskyy on meeting Trump soon: ‘A lot can be decided before the New Year’
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy says a meeting with US president Donald Trump will happen “in the near future”.
The pair are expected to meet at Mar-a-Lago in Florida for a crunch peace summit in the next few days.
“We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level – with President Trump in the near future. A lot can be decided before the New Year,” Zelensky said on social media.
Rustem Umerov reported on his latest contacts with the American side. We are not losing a single day. We have agreed on a meeting at the highest level – with President Trump in the near future. A lot can be decided before the New Year. Glory to Ukraine!
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) December 26, 2025
There has been no immediate confirmation by The White House about this meeting, according to the New York Times, and no further specifics have been given at this moment.
This comes after earlier this week, the Ukrainian president unveiled a revised 20-point peace plan – which includes security guarantees Ukraine seeks to prevent future Russian aggression.
Yesterday Zelenskyy posted on social media to say he held a nearly hour-long phone call with Trump’s Special Envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. According to the president, they discussed “several substantive details” of the ongoing peace talk.
“We are truly working 24/7 to bring the end of this brutal Russian war against Ukraine closer and to ensure that all documents and steps are realistic, effective, and reliable,” Zelensky wrote on X.
“I hope that today’s Christmas agreements and the ideas we discussed will prove useful.”
The US president, Donald Trump, ranted about Jeffrey Epstein in a Christmas Day social media post, claiming that he had dropped links with the disgraced financier and sex offender “long before it became fashionable” and calling the outcry for the release of the documents referred to as the Epstein files a “Radical Left Witch Hunt”.
The Trump administration is facing increasing scrutiny after its handling of the government files related to Epstein. Many political figures are placing pressure on Trump to give more transparency regarding the documents, while some members of the public are calling for the files’ full release.
“Merry Christmas to all, including the many Sleazebags who loved Jeffrey Epstein…only to ‘drop him like a dog’ when things got too HOT, falsely claimed they had nothing to do with him, didn’t know him, said he was a disgusting person, and then blame, of course, President Donald J. Trump, who was actually the only one who did drop Epstein, and long before it became fashionable to do so,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Christmas Day.
Earlier this week, a new trove of the Epstein-related documents was released. It included a claim that Trump was on a flight with Epstein and a 20-year-old woman in the 1990s. There is no indication that the woman was a victim of any crime and being included in the files does not indicate any criminal wrongdoing.
The files also include a series of emails between Ghislaine Maxwell and someone who signs himself as “A” and uses the alias “The Invisible Man”. In August 2001, “A” wrote to Maxwell: “I am up here at Balmoral Summer Camp for the Royal Family”.
Nigeria provided US with intelligence for strikes on militants, foreign minister says
Nigeria provided the US with intelligence on jihadists before the strikes that took place in the country on Christmas Day, its foreign ministry said on Friday.
On Thursday, the US president, Donald Trump, said the US military had carried out strikes against Islamic State militants in north-west Nigeria, after spending weeks decrying the group for targeting Christians.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, the president said: “Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!
“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. The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.”
Now, Nigerian foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, has told broadcaster ChannelsTV that he was on the phone with the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and that Nigeria “provided” the intelligence.
“We spoke twice. We spoke for 19 minutes before the strike and then we spoke again for another five minutes before it went on,” Tuggar said.
He added that they spoke “extensively” and that President Bola Tinubu gave “the go-ahead” to launch the strikes.
Tuggar did not rule out further strikes, describing them as an “ongoing process” that would also involve other countries.
In an interview with the BBC, Tuggar insisted the strikes had “nothing to do with a particular religion”. He said the operation did not have “anything to do with Christmas, it could be any other day – it is to do with attacking terrorists who have been killing Nigerians”.
Trump has previously said he would launch a “guns-a-blazing” US military intervention in Nigeria, claiming that the country’s government has been inadequate in its efforts to prevent attacks on Christians by Islamist groups.
