north west

In the evening, moments before the United States’ aerial operation in northwestern Nigeria, a helicopter hovered above the perimeters of Gwangwano District, in Sokoto’s Tangaza Local Government Area (LGA). It was Dec. 25, 2025. Residents said helicopters had hovered around in the past, but this one stayed far too long, unsettling the civilians and alerting the terrorists. 

For at least two years, communities in Tangaza have cohabited with foreign-linked Lakurawa terrorists, who first appeared like their saviours. Villagers agreed to a peace deal with the group in exchange for protection from homegrown terrorists who were ravaging their homes and taxing them to death. Initially, Lakurawa seemed more persuasive, residents said, but they eventually introduced their own radical ideologies—far worse than the criminal enterprise they had condemned.

A few hours after the helicopter was sighted, Ardo Kyaure, a terrorist leader in Tangaza, was seen moving house to house near Bauni forests, urging residents to flee. He warned them of an impending attack. Villagers who saw Ardo said he was also making phone calls to accomplices, panting as he ran through the communities. 

Ardo was once a local terrorist leader before defecting to join Lakurawa. He became a middleman between the foreign terrorists and the villagers after he was subdued, losing so many of his fighters to the new sect.

News quickly reached the communities that the Lakurawa terrorists were evacuating their camps. Residents said the terrorists fled the area on over a dozen motorcycles. The villagers within the Bauni Mountains and the Kandam community also ran for their lives.

“We sighted 15 motorcycles carrying luggage and the Lakurawa terrorists with their women and children,” Alhaji Rabiu, a resident of Zurmuku, a village neighbouring the Bauni forest, told HumAngle. “Ten additional motorcycles were moving to Muntsaika, a community in the nearby Niger Republic, in the evening before the strikes happened.”

HumAngle spoke to scores of locals who witnessed the air raid, especially villagers living near the Bauni Mountains. We also interviewed village chiefs and a local monarch in Tangaza, who corroborated Rabiu’s account, stating that the strike failed to reach its target, despite public claims by US and Nigerian officials. 

“No terrorist was found dead throughout our communities,” said Alhaji Bunu, the traditional ruler of the Gwangwano District in Tangaza LGA. “We saw nothing like dead bodies, even at the Bauni Mountains where the bomb fell. The same Lakurawas we knew are still here, loitering around our communities. We are still mingling with them.”

Fireballs, flaming narratives 

A few days after the strike, the Nigerian government claimed “a total of 16 GPS-guided precision munitions were deployed using MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial platforms, successfully neutralising the targeted ISIS elements attempting to penetrate Nigeria from the Sahel corridor”. Donald Trump, the US President, had said that the strike eliminated Islamic State terrorists who had been “viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians at levels not seen for many years, and even centuries”.

That narrative had lingered for years and intensified in the final months of 2025, when the US designated Nigeria a country of particular concern and also threatened military action against terrorists operating within the country. Nigerian officials and security experts, however, dispelled the narrative, saying that Muslims, Christians, and other adherents of other faiths are victims of violent attacks and terrorism in the country. The rhetoric was inflamed again when the US announced that its Christmas Day airstrikes targeted elements of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) in Nigeria. 

US forces have occasionally targeted ISIS terrorists in parts of Africa, especially in Somalia, often working with local intelligence to combat the violent groups. In Nigeria, however, the strike has sparked fierce debate over whether ISIS terrorists were present at the location hit.

Most security experts agree that Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West African Provinces (ISWAP), which are primarily based in northeastern Nigeria, have established links to ISIS. However, the targeted Tangaza forest, which officials described as the transit hub for ISIS-affiliated terrorists, is known to be dominated by the Lakurawa group, which infiltrated Sokoto through porous borders with the Niger Republic. 

Nigerian government officials have publicly claimed that the strike was conducted jointly with US forces, based on intelligence shared to fight terrorism. The country’s Minister of Information, Muhammad Idris, described it as “successful precision strikes on two major ISIS terrorist enclaves located within the Bauni forest axis of Tangaza Local Government Area, Sokoto State”.

“Intelligence confirmed that these locations were being used as assembly and staging grounds by foreign ISIS elements infiltrating Nigeria from the Sahel region, in collaboration with local affiliates, to plan and execute large-scale terrorist attacks within Nigerian territory,” he said.

Yet the circumstances surrounding the strike have raised concerns amongst villagers in Sokoto State and conflict researchers in the northern region.

Was the precision strike successful?

HumAngle began gathering witness accounts moments after the air raid, tracing events before, during, and after the missiles were launched. Residents of Bauni village, where the strike happened, said they have seen no sign that any terrorist was hit. 

We interviewed a number of  Bauni locals, who had travelled from the village to a safer place in Tangaza to share their accounts. In separate interviews, they all echoed one thing: the terrorists had long left the site of the attack before the missile was launched.

The strike raised curiosity in the communities, as villagers insisted they would know if any terrorist was killed or if any of them were injured. 

Kasimu Hassan, a Bauni villager, told HumAngle that the Lakurawa terrorists had absolute control over them, and the airstrike hadn’t ended their reign. In Bauni, he said, no villager was allowed to welcome visitors or accept strangers without notifying the Lakurawa terrorists. He stated that anyone caught doing that could be traced, tried, and executed.

“This has been the situation we are in. Not even a single Lakurawa was killed or injured by the US explosion in Tangaza LGA. Some of them come to our mosques to pray, visit our markets to buy commodities, and stop over at our houses to exchange pleasantries in forceful smiles,” Kasimu said, adding that “the Lakurawa terrorists are still in our villages hanging around the bush even after the explosion.”

At least four other Bauni villagers confirmed Hassan’s claims. One said fires burned in the surrounding bush for days after the strike. Despite official claims that a Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) was underway, locals said they had not seen security operatives surveilling the area for such an assessment. 

During our on-the-ground reporting, HumAngle spotted a police anti-bomb squad along the road to Tangaza, but locals insisted that officers have refused to come near the site for any post-strike surveillance. Sanusi Abubakar, the spokesperson for Sokoto State Police Command, has not responded to HumAngle’s inquiry into why the anti-bomb squad has refused to visit the communities for the assessment.

“It was Ardo Kyaure, a terrorist leader, who came to tell us that there is a lot of debris on the Bauni Mountains and another undetonated bomb deposited there,” Kasimu added.

Terrorists taking cover in civilian villages 

After the strikes, villagers said the Lakurawa terrorists increasingly sought refuge inside civilian settlements, avoiding the Bauni Mountains, where they usually live. Magaji Abdullahi, the village head of Bauni, confirmed this to HumAngle, noting that the airstrike only resulted in moving terrorists into civilian settlements. 

“The mountains used to be our hunting point in the last 15 to 20 years,” said Magaji. “It is not accessible even to our local hunters anymore, except recently, when the Lakurawa terrorists mixed up with us. The Nigerian government abandoned us for years; the only military base available to us was in the far-off town of Gwangwano. They tried a lot in securing only the centre of Gwangwano effectively, but there is no peace in other areas.”

He also stressed that villagers are left with no choice but to cohabit with the terrorists due to the absence of government in the area. The Lakurawa terror group now controls much of Gwangwano District, which encompasses villages such as Bauni, Garin Mano, Mugunho, Kaidaji, and Kandam.

Muazu Magaji, another witness of the strike, had left the Kaidaji village to settle down in the Tangaza town, waiting for the coast to clear. He was there when the missile lightning illuminated the community. Despite the reverberating sounds that came with the airstrike, Magaji said, terrorists were watching from afar, with Ardo Kyaure calling others who might still be around the Bauni forest “to leave”.

“I was walking from Kaidaji to Bauni when the bomb exploded that night,” he recalled. “We already figured out something was about to happen because of the way we saw how the Lawkurawas were moving out of the forest zone to our settlements on the day of the attack.”

After the airstrike, on Saturday, Dec. 26, witness accounts revealed that terrorists came to sniff around to know what might come next. Sanusi Dubudari, one of the fleeing residents from Kaidaji, said: “We saw 11 Lakurawa terrorists in Kaidaji village asking residents whether they found their ₦7 million cash while they were running on Friday.”

Based on several local accounts, the Lakurawa terrorists have blended in really well with the villagers in Tangaza, making it difficult for security to hunt them down over fear of collateral damage. Although the terrorists moved into Sokoto from countries like Mali, the Niger Republic, and Burkina Faso, they have formed a strong alliance with locally-rooted terrorists, who made it easy for them to navigate the terrain seamlessly, sometimes hiding under the shield of locals during military raids. They used the same tactics during the US airstrike targeting ISIS elements in the state.

Apart from Ardo Kyaure, Charambe Damba is another indigenous terrorist working in cahoots with the Lakurawa group. He resided in Illela, a town bordering the Niger Republic, but recently relocated to Bauni to set up a terrorist camp on the mountain and in the forest of the locality. One of the known foreign-linked Lakurawa terrorists is called Asasanta, who is from the Republic of Mali. Other local accomplices were identified as Jammare from the Alela village and Buba Holo from the Gwangwano community in the Tangaza LGA.

Near-surface aerial bombing 

HumAngle matched witness accounts with satellite intelligence and geospatial analysis to assess the effectiveness of the so-called precision airstrike. For weeks, we reconstructed the events leading up to the airstrike and what happened later, merging open-source intelligence with on-the-ground reporting. At the time of this investigation, no government or military official (including bomb disposal units) and no journalists had accessed the actual blast site. There were also no photos or after-action reports, which are typically shared on the Nigerian military’s social media channels after air raids.

We first used Google Earth imagery as a base map to scan for fire activity that matched the date and timeframe of the strike. With no confirmed coordinates from official or ground sources, we overlaid NASA FIRMS (VIIRS), a US National Aeronautics and Space Administration-run detection tool providing real-time satellite data on active fire hotspots globally. Multiple fire detections appeared about three kilometres south of Nukuru, in the rocky mountainous terrain of the Bauni area. These terrain features matched the location described by our sources and are more than 11 km west of the Bauni Forest Reserve. There were no fire detections deep inside the forest during the relevant period. 

From satellite images, the Gwangwano district, including the Bauni village, looks empty. Here, villages don’t spread out; they sit in small clusters, and there’s a lot of space before the next one. Farmland, open savannah, hills, and stretches of land also seem unused. But once you zoom in and start following the details, it becomes clear that the place is just not organised the way a typical rural town would be.

Through extensive geospatial analyses, HumAngle identified recent motorcycle tracks within the Bauni locality – thin lines, sometimes barely visible, cutting through farmland, climbing hills, disappearing into forested areas, and reappearing elsewhere. The tracks were nearly everywhere at the time of this satellite intelligence analysis. One route splits into three, then those split again. Some lead straight into villages, others run around the edges, into the hills, or toward areas where there are no visible settlements at all. This matches what witnesses told us about the Lakurawa terrorists moving on motorcycles in large numbers, and leaving the hill.

Up in the hills and mountain areas, especially around the forest reserve and the expanse of land next to it, there are no villages — just small clearings and faint shapes that don’t look like farmland or houses, with tracks leading in and out. People familiar with this area say these are temporary shelters, where terrorists survive seamlessly, hunting small animals, foraging, and riding into town to buy supplies, and then returning. Here, locals said, terrorists don’t need to live deep inside the forest reserve; the hills and forest-adjacent land outside it are enough. They’re close to communities but not inside them – close enough to reach markets or villages, far enough to stay out of sight. 

When we overlaid the NASA fire data from the days after Dec. 25, 2025, the locations lined up with this pattern. The fires were not inside a village, nor deep in the forest reserve. They appeared in terrain that fits how people actually use this landscape — hilly, open, connected by tracks, and close enough to settlements to be seen and felt, but not inside them. However, we found a dense network of informal routes that makes movement easy and law enforcement’s control almost impossible.

Using Google Earth Pro, we reviewed 2023 imagery of the hills and mountain range south of Nukuru village and the Bauni Mountain and marked points of interest (POIs) across the landscape. The only visible human features in this sparse environment are isolated huts, farmhouses, small clearings under trees, and faint impressions that could be temporary living units. We presented the satellite review to some of the enlightened locals; they believe that if a munition struck a fixed structure there, even a light one, there would be some visible trace. 

When we obtained the latest 2025 Planet imagery, we overlaid the same POIs onto the new images and checked them individually. Most structures were still present; some appeared less distinct, likely due to resolution, seasonal change, or abandonment, but none showed clear signs of blast damage, scorched ground, or collapsed structures. In a few cases, huts visible in 2023 were no longer visible in 2025, yet the sandy compound remained intact, without burn marks or disturbed vegetation. This clearly shows that no permanent or semi-permanent structure in the area was directly hit – at least within the limits of our assessments.

The satellite imagery analyses and eyewitness accounts point away from a classic ground-impact strike. There is no visible crater, no destroyed structure, or abrupt disruption of living units. The evidence fits more closely with a high-energy detonation that occurred at or above ground level, producing intense light, a strong pressure wave felt several kilometres away, and secondary fires in surrounding vegetation. 

Our findings corroborate locals’ accounts of sighting the flash and feeling the vibration despite being several kilometres from the fire detections. A near-surface detonation transfers more energy into the air, creating light and shock without leaving deep or lasting ground damage.

HumAngle’s satellite investigation shows no clear impact point. The cumulative evidence from witness statements, NASA fire detection, and high-resolution satellite imagery indicates that the US missile strike may not have hit the prime targets. 

A recent New York Times story on the incident quoted two anonymous US government officials, who said the strike was “a one-time event” intended to scare terrorists while appeasing the Nigerian Christians that the US has their back, and that the warship responsible for launching the strike has since been withdrawn from the Gulf of Guinea.

Some local conflict and terrorism experts said the US airstrike largely failed to achieve its publicly stated mission. James Barnett, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute, who has researched African conflicts for years, believes that the strike “was performative”. “It was not a success,” he noted. “It may not have even killed any militants. And it certainly did not make Christians there safer (possibly the opposite).”

Seeds of doubt and misinformation

Meanwhile, in Jabo, a civilian community in Sokoto’s Tambuwal LGA, kilometres away from Tangaza, where the airstrike also landed, seeds of doubt and misinformation are growing among residents, who believe that the US is targeting Muslim settlements. 

The locals gave accounts of rays of light from flying fireballs and vibrations similar to those of the Tangaza villagers, except that they insisted that the Jabo area does not host terror groups and has not witnessed any terrorist attacks in the past decade. They wondered why such a tactical bombing would be aimed at their peaceful community. 

After HumAngle’s report of the residents’ accounts, the Nigerian government provided a counternarrative, saying what locals saw was debris from the air assaults on terrorists in faraway Tangaza. Residents of Offa, Kwara State, also experienced what the Nigerian Information Minister described as “debris from expended munitions”.

Military authorities have urged civilian residents in Sokoto and Kwara to stop keeping the unexploded ordnance found at the sites of the raid. This came after videos appeared online showing locals scavenging exploded and unexploded debris at strike sites in Sokoto, raising concerns about potential deadly blasts.

“We do not expect civilians to pick up or keep such materials,” Major General Michael Onoja, Director of Defence Media Operations, said. “We can only appeal to them to return all materials that may prove harmful to them.”

Media misreporting

Isa Salihu, the chairperson of the Tangaza local council, confirmed that the US-led aerial assault actually hit a known terrorist hub in the area, but stressed that details of the operation were still sketchy. “We cannot yet confirm if targets were killed,” he said. “We are awaiting detailed security reports to determine the impact and to verify if there were any civilian casualties.”

However, some local media organisations in Nigeria erroneously reported the local leader affirming that the “precision strike” hit the targeted terrorists. 

A day after the strike, the Sokoto State government, through Abubakar Bawa, the state’s spokesperson, had issued a statement titled: “Nigeria-US Aistrike Hits Terrorist Targets in Tangaza”. But the content of the statement betrayed its title, as it merely reiterated what the local council chairperson said. “The impact could not be immediately determined, as they await assessment of the Joint Operations,” the statement read.

Bawa and the local chairman did not respond to HumAngle’s calls and messages for further clarification on their statements. 

When the explosive devices from the US airstrike landed in Birkini, a satellite village in Jabo town, Sokoto, North West Nigeria, on Thursday, Dec. 25, locals said they were alarmed after years of relative calm that allowed them to sleep peacefully at night. More than 18 civilian neighbouring communities were similarly shaken after the blast in Tambuwal Local Government Area (LGA), prompting some residents to pack their belongings and flee. 

The villagers believed they were under direct attack.

Before the news of the incident became widespread, rumours spread in the area that the American government was targeting Muslim-dominated settlements in Nigeria. 

Muhammad Bawa, a commercial driver from Birkini, said the airstrike, which targeted suspected Islamic State terrorists, occurred close to his farm. He said locals read social media posts claiming that “the American government is envious of Nigeria’s long history of peace and has been misled into believing that Nigerian Christians are being persecuted”.

“As a result, the US seemed prepared to target us, especially the Muslims in the North. This is why we are all feeling frightened and anxious about these unusual incidents,” he said. 

HumAngle found these claims to be false and misleading. However, with little media literacy and limited access to reliable information, many residents chose to leave rather than risk being caught in another strike. 

“That night, people from all 18 neighbouring communities gathered to move to Jabo in search of safety, as we were unsure of what might happen next,” Muhammed told HumAngle. 

As dozens of residents attempted to flee, Aminu Aliyu, the Information Officer of Tambuwal LGA, addressed some of them, urging calm and asking them to return to their homes. He assured them that the strikes were not aimed at civilians. 

Although the primary impact site was Birkini, fragments of the explosive device were later found across neighbouring communities, including Sakanau, Tungar Barke, Aske Dodo, Barga Hordu, Gasa Lodi, Yangwal, Lungu, Tungar Doruwa, Tungar Kwatte, Tungar Na’adda, and Darin Guru.

Muhammad recalled sitting on a mat watching a movie when the device flew above, “shaking our roof and sounding like strong wind before it fell”. “I didn’t give a damn and went on watching the movie,” he said. “We suddenly heard a high-sounding explosion strike like thunder. It came with the fire catching dried shrubs and farm straws, swirling like a storm.”

The Nigerian government later claimed the explosive devices found in Jabo and other rural communities in Tambuwal LGA, as well as in Offa, Kwara State, North Central Nigeria, were debris from precision weapons fired at terrorist camps within the Bauni forest axis of Tangaza LGA, Sokoto State, several kilometres from Tambuwal. 

Mohammed Idris, the country’s Minister of Information and National Orientation, said intelligence showed the Bauni forest was “being used as assembly and staging grounds by foreign ISIS elements infiltrating Nigeria from the Sahel region, in collaboration with local affiliates, to plan and execute large-scale terrorist attacks within Nigerian territory”.

He further noted that the strikes were launched from maritime platforms in the Gulf of Guinea after extensive intelligence gathering. Sixteen GPS-guided munitions were deployed using MQ-9 Reaper drones, and the targeted ISIS elements were successfully neutralised. Although specific damage assessments have not been released, Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, said “those who handled the operational aspects of the episode will return with the details”. 

The origins of fear and terror

The Dec. 25 airstrike in Sokoto was first announced by US President Donald Trump, who said American forces struck ISIS positions in the northwestern region. The Nigerian government later confirmed the operation, noting that it was a joint effort between the Nigerian military and US forces, targeting terrorist camps in the state. 

“No civilian casualties were recorded in Jabo Town or any other affected area,” according to Abubakar Bawa, the spokesperson for the Sokoto State government. He added that recovered objects were under investigation by Nigerian and US military authorities. 

Trump justified the strike using a Christian genocide narrative, claiming that ISIS terrorists in Nigeria were “viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians at levels not seen for many years, and even centuries”. This echoed earlier US rhetoric that designated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” for alleged state-backed religious persecution. 

Nigerian officials and conflict researchers have rejected this framing, stressing that terror groups target both Muslims and Christians. Nevertheless, the framing of the narrative heightened fear among Muslim communities in Sokoto’s Birkini, Sakanau, and Kagara, where many interpreted the strike as an attack on them under the guise of protecting Christians.

“I fled my community and will resettle in Jabo town for fear of the unknown,” Sani Yale, a resident of Sakanau, told HumAngle. “Drawing from what I watched in American films exposing the powers of the US in war, I fear that the bomb explosion will come to our villages again. We feel we are not safe at all.” Several other residents share the same fear.

Umar Yusuf, from the Kagara community near Jabo, said he was asleep when his wife woke him screaming that an American attack was underway. They fled to Jabo town, where they encountered others debating what they described as “America’s ill intentions toward Nigeria”. 

“How can the US claim precision targeting at ISIS and throw bombs at us here, where we have never experienced a terrorist attack?” asked Ibrahim Shehu, a retired security officer from Jabo. “They claim intelligence sharing, yet miss the correct locations where terrorists, bandits, and Lakurawa reside and camp. This is just deliberately done to finish us, but God protected us.”

Nigeria’s foreign minister reiterated that the joint operation was intended “to fight against terrorism, to stop the terrorists from killing innocent Nigerians, be (they) Muslim, Christian, atheist, whatever religion.” Over the years, Nigeria has grappled with insecurity driven by a variety of causes, including terrorism, criminality, and ethno-religious violence. 

Security analysts believe the strike targeted Lakurawa, a violent criminal gang active in the northwestern region. The group first arrived in the Gudu and Tangaza areas of Sokoto State around 2018, after some communities invited them to act as protectors against terror attacks.

At the time, security authorities described them as “herders [from the neighbouring Niger Republic] not known to be violent but strongly suspected to be armed”. The group became more lethal last year, frequently assaulting communities while taking refuge in the forests spanning across the region. The Nigerian Defence Headquarters designated Lakurawa a terrorist organisation in Nov. 2024.

A study by the Combating Terrorism Centre suggests Lakurawa may have had links to Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (the al-Qaeda affiliate in the Sahel) between 2017 and 2018, but is now associated with the Islamic State’s Sahel Province (ISSP). Meanwhile, a Nov. 2025 study by Good Governance Africa notes that “the group currently maintains a nominal or permanent presence in at least 19 local government areas and 82 villages across Kebbi, Sokoto, and Zamfara”.

As authorities and residents continue to make sense of the recent strikes, concerns persist over the careless collection of unexploded fragments scattered across affected areas. Some of the devices have yet to detonate, according to Aminu, the Tambuwal LGA spokesperson. 

“Military personnel were here to see for themselves, but did nothing to stop it. There are strong indications that it will probably explode at any time. People are barred from visiting the area,” he said. 

A few locals gathered in an open area around 10 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 25, when they saw a projectile hovering above them. Within minutes, a blast sent panic through the town, igniting a hail of fire and fury in Birikini, a rural settlement in Jabo, Tambuwal Local Government Area (LGA), Sokoto, North West Nigeria. 

The explosion threw the community into chaos, with locals running towards the site of the strike to find out what had gone wrong.

“I was sitting at a joint when we saw a reddish item falling from the sky, illuminating the community. Suddenly, we heard a loud bang. I thought a car tyre had burst and caught fire at the same time,” said Ismail Umar, a local in Jabo town. “When we moved, we saw many people shouting and rushing towards the scene. Some thought it was an aircraft that fell. This raised tension, and people couldn’t sleep throughout the night. I went home around 12 a.m., but when I woke up for the morning prayer around 5 a.m., people were still outside, discussing the incident.”

The heavy artillery shell landed on an expanse of cultivated farm field in the area. When locals arrived at the scene, they found shrapnel scattered in the community and wondered where the strike had emerged. No casualties were recorded, according to locals who spoke to HumAngle. They noted that such an incident was unusual to them, as the area has not witnessed any terrorist attack in years. 

Musa Dandare, an elderly man in the community, said he saw the projectile descending towards the town before it hit the ground with a loud bang. Although it was a bloodless attack, villagers insisted they were disturbed because they had never experienced such a military-grade airstrike. 

Later that night, Donald Trump, the United States President, announced that the country’s military “launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorists in North West Nigeria…” He claimed that terrorists were dead and pledged that many more such attacks would happen. The US Africa Command (AFRICOM) and the US Department of War also confirmed the strikes. 

Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, a spokesperson for the Nigerian Foreign Ministry, stated that the “precision hits on terrorist targets” were the result of a joint security and intelligence collaboration between the two nations. 

“It was a successful operation,” said Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, though he did not disclose specific damage assessments. “We will have to wait for those who handled the operational aspects of the episode to return with the details.”

In November, President Trump threatened military action against Nigeria, accusing the government of failing to protect Christians from Islamic State terrorists. He also designated it as a country of particular concern. Although existing data and conflict show that the country’s security challenge cannot fit into a religious tag,  Trump’s claim has drawn the attention of the international community to the insecurity in Africa’s most populous nation and has also deepened polarisation within the country. 

ISIS in northwestern Nigeria?

Nigeria is home to several armed groups, including two that are associated with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). One of these groups is the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), which emerged from the Boko Haram extremist faction and operates mainly in the northeastern region. Another is the Lakurawa terror group,  which is active in the northwestern region. While the US forces have stressed that they were targeting ISIS fighters in Nigeria, security analysts suggest that they likely targeted the Lakurawa terrorists, a group that has become increasingly dangerous in Sokoto and Kebbi states in the past year.

The Lakurawa terrorists have operated in many communities in Sokoto State, including Tangaza, Gudu, and Silame, but they have recorded no activities in the Tambuwal LGA. The terrorists thrive in towns located along the permeable borders of Sokoto State, allowing armed groups to move easily between Nigeria and the Niger Republic. After crossing the border, they set up camps in the area’s vast bushland. 

Exactly a year ago, on Dec. 25, a military airstrike targeted at the Lakurawa terror group killed up to ten civilians and injured several others in the Silame area of Sokoto State. 

At the time, the Nigerian military said those killed had been “positively identified as associated with the Lakurawa group”. Military authorities later attributed the civilian deaths to secondary explosions, explaining that the strike hit a terrorist logistics hub and arms cache, triggering detonations that sent stored munitions exploding in multiple directions. 

The aftermath

Meanwhile, locals in Jabo who spoke to HumAngle stressed that the locality targeted by the US forces is not controlled or infested by any terrorist group like other areas in the region. “It’s a peaceful place,” one local told HumAngle.

The locals said they have combed the entire Birikinin village and have found no civilians or terrorists hit by the US strike. 

However, locals fear that this singular strike might cause the terrorists to beam searchlights on them. Unlike places like Isa, Sabon Birni, and Gada, which have had deadly terrorist attacks in the past, Jabo seems to be a haven for locals seeking calm and tranquillity in the state. The locals wondered why the US strike ignored terrorist enclaves in the state to target a thriving civilian community.

“It was the first time we heard what a bomb sounded like in this community,” Musa said. “Many of us couldn’t sleep throughout the night.”

Aliyu Garba, a local chief in Jabo, expressed concerns over how some locals have collected the relics of the explosive materials from the strike scene, saying some of the shrapnel might detonate or harm them. “It was as big as a car’s gearbox,” he said, describing one of the broken explosives found on the ground. 

Garba added that they have lived in the community peacefully for years, praying that this new event would not bring calamity to them. Locals reiterated that they have not noticed any form of terrorist activities in the area for years, let alone the Islamic State operations that might call for such an airstrike.

According to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) records covering 2010 to 2025, Tambuwal LGA has experienced only a handful of violent incidents, primarily involving small-scale attacks and abductions by criminal groups. The dataset records no previous incidents involving airstrikes, heavy artillery, or aerial bombardment in the area. In the past 15 years, for instance, only seven significant events were recorded in the LGA, and none happened in the Jabo town.

HumAngle has obtained videos of civilian activities after the airstrike. The videos showed locals panicking and asking government officials to assure their safety. Another video showed the presence of security operatives in the community, with officers barricading the scene of the airstrike. HumAngle also observed that many residents are fleeing the area in fear of similar incidents, and this could cause widespread displacement. Local authorities tried to hold them back and assure them of their safety.