By Jonas Vilkas
On December 25, 2025, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) carried out a series of airstrikes in northwest Nigeria. U.S. officials claimed the strikes were targeting ISIL/ISIS, and Trump’s Secretary of War Pete Hegseth promised more actions in Nigeria are forthcoming. Trump orchestrated the timing of the attacks to frame them as a “Christmas gift”, claiming that this was a response to the Nigerian government failing to protect Christians. In the month prior to the attacks, Trump posted on social media that he had instructed the U.S. military to prepare for a possible intervention into Nigeria, claiming that “thousands” of Christians had been killed there. The U.S. justification for the airstrike is contrary to the statements of Nigerian locals, who say that there has been no terrorist activity in the area, and that Christians and Muslims peacefully coexist there.
It is noteworthy that the Nigerian government collaborated with the U.S. in launching this attack on its own nation, and praised the attack afterwards. For Trump’s part, his decision to carry out these strikes is contrary to his branding as a peacemaker, and is a concession to the ultra-right fringe of his base, which perceives an existential threat against Christians everywhere. The Nigerian government, however, disagreed with Trump’s framing of the strike, stating that it was not protecting any specific religion.
These attacks in Nigeria must be seen as part of the broader strategy of U.S. imperialism in its accelerating decline, which is to lash out at the various oppressed nations, as also seen in the recent threats, escalations, and aggressions towards Venezuela, Iran, Syria, and Palestine. U.S. imperialism is continuing its failed “Global War on Terror” strategy, now opening a new front in Nigeria.
