The Nigerian government says President Bola Tinubu approved United States airstrikes against terrorist targets in the country’s North-West region.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Tuggar disclosed this on Friday, hours after the United States Department of War and President Donald Trump announced that American forces had carried out strikes against terrorists in Nigeria.
Speaking on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily, Tuggar said the operation was conducted jointly and with the full consent of the Nigerian government.
“Now that the United States is cooperating, it is something we are doing jointly,” he said. “As the President emphasised before giving the go-ahead, it was important to make it clear that this is a joint operation and that it is not targeting any religion, nor carried out in the name of one religion or another.”
He stressed that Nigeria is a multi-religious country and that the partnership with the United States is aimed solely at combating terrorism and protecting lives and property.
“We are working with partners like the US to fight terrorism and safeguard Nigerians,” Tuggar added.
‘A collaboration, Nigeria provided intelligence’
While some critics have described the strikes as a violation of Nigeria’s territorial integrity, Tuggar rejected that view, insisting the operation did not undermine the country’s sovereignty.
“This is a collaboration. It is what we have been calling for,” he said.
According to the minister, Nigeria provided the intelligence that led to the strikes. He revealed that he held a 19-minute phone conversation with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio prior to the operation.
“We agreed that we would brief President Tinubu and seek his approval, which he granted,” Tuggar said. “After that approval, I spoke again with Marco Rubio about five minutes before the strike was launched against the terrorists.”
On Thursday, the US Department of Defense said “multiple ISIS terrorists” were killed in the strikes, which it said were conducted at the request of the Nigerian government.
President Trump also confirmed the operation, writing on Truth Social that the Department of War had carried out “numerous perfect strikes.”
“Under my leadership, our country will not allow radical Islamic terrorism to prosper,” Trump said. He added a Christmas message praising the US military and warning of further action if attacks against Christians continue.
Although details of the operation were not immediately disclosed, the Department of Defense later released a short video clip showing an airstrike in Nigeria.
US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) confirmed that the strikes, which reportedly took place in Sokoto State, were conducted in coordination with Nigerian authorities.
“The @DeptofWar is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight, on Christmas,” Hegseth wrote on X. “More to come… Grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation.”
The strikes come weeks after Trump said Christians in Nigeria faced what he described as an “existential threat” amounting to “genocide.” He subsequently returned Nigeria to the list of “Countries of Particular Concern,” threatened military action if the situation did not improve, and later imposed visa restrictions on Nigerians.
Nigerian authorities, however, have consistently rejected the framing of the country’s violence as religious, maintaining that people of different faiths are targeted by criminal and terrorist groups across the country.
