What to know about the militants targeted by US airstrikes in Nigeria

The United States airstrikes that targeted Islamic State group militants in northwestern Nigeria on Thursday marked a major escalation in an offensive that the West African’s overstretched military has struggled with for years.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on social media that the “powerful and deadly” strikes in the state of Sokoto were carried out against IS gunmen who were “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians.”

Residents and security analysts have said Nigeria’s security crisis affects both Christians, predominant in the south, and Muslims, who are the majority in the north.

Nigeria, which is battling multiple armed groups, said the U.S. strikes were part of an exchange of intelligence and strategic coordination between the two countries.

The Associated Press could not confirm the extent of the strikes’ impact.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth , in a post on X about the airstrikes, said: “More to come...”

Militants targeted by US airstrikes

The armed groups in Africa’s most populous country include at least two affiliated with IS, an offshoot of the Boko Haram extremist group known as the Islamic State West Africa Province in the northeast, and the lesser-known Islamic State Sahel Province, or ISSP, known locally as Lakurawa, and prominent in the northwest.

Although officials did not say exactly which group was targeted, security analysts said the target, if indeed against IS militants, was likely members of Lakurawa, which became more lethal in border states like Sokoto and Kebbi in the last year, often targeting remote communities and security forces.

The Nigerian military has said in the past that the group has roots in neighboring Niger and that it became more active in Nigeria’s border communities following a 2023 military coup. That coup resulted in fractured relations between Nigeria and Niger, and affected their multinational military operations along the porous border.

Militants torment villagers

Multiple analysts have said Lakurawa has been active in northwest Nigeria since around 2017, when it was invited by traditional authorities in Sokoto to protect their communities from bandit groups.

The militants, however, “overstayed their welcome, clashing with some of the community leaders ... and enforcing a harsh interpretation of Sharia law that alienated much of the rural population,” according to James Barnett, an Africa researcher with the Washington-based Hudson Institute.

“Communities now openly say that Lakurawa are more oppressive and dangerous than the bandits they claim to protect them from,” according to Malik Samuel, a Nigerian security researcher with Good Governance Africa.

Lakurawa controls territories in Sokoto and Kebbi states, and has become known for killings, kidnapping, rape and armed robbery, Samuel said.

But some of the attacks blamed on Lakurawa are by the Islamic State Sahel Province, which has expanded from Niger’s Dosso region to northwestern Nigeria, according to the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

“ISSP has maintained a low profile, operating covertly to infiltrate and entrench itself along the Niger-Nigeria border, and is now also expanding its operations toward the Beninese border,” the project said in a recent report.

Threats are deep-rooted in social issues

The security woes are more of a governance problem than a military one.

Motives for attacks differ, but the gangs are often driven by the near absence of a state and security presence in conflict hot spots, making recruitment easy. Those hot spots, data show, have some of the country’s highest levels of poverty, hunger and unemployment.

Nigeria’s Minister of Defense Christopher Musa once said that military action is only 30% of what is needed to fix the country’s security crisis, while the remaining 70% depends on good governance.

“The absence of the state in remote communities is making it easy for non-state actors to come in and present themselves to the people as the best alternative government,” said Samuel.

US strikes seen as crucial support for Nigeria’s military

Thursday’s U.S. strikes are widely seen by experts as crucial help for Nigeria’s security forces, which are often overstretched and outgunned as they fight multiple security crises across different regions.

In states like Sokoto, the military often carries out airstrikes targeting militant hideouts and Nigeria has embarked on mass recruitment of security forces. But analysts say military operations targeting the gangs are not usually sustained and the militants easily move on motorcycles to new locations through vast forests that connect several states in the north.

They also often use hostages — including schoolchildren — as cover, making airstrikes difficult.

周四，美国对尼日利亚西北部伊斯兰国武装分子发动空袭，标志着这场西非军事重兵多年来一直疲于应对的攻势的重大升级。

美国总统唐纳德·特朗普在社交媒体上表示，在索科托州进行的“威力强大且致命的”袭击是针对“伊斯兰国”武装分子进行的，这些武装分子“主要以无辜的基督徒为目标，残忍地杀害他们”。

居民和安全分析人士表示，尼日利亚的安全危机既影响南部占多数的基督徒，也影响北部占多数的穆斯林。

尼日利亚正与多个武装团体作战，该国表示，美国的空袭是两国之间情报交流和战略协调的一部分。

美联社无法确认罢工的影响程度。

美国国防部长皮特·赫格塞斯在X网站上就空袭事件发表文章称：“后续还有更多消息……”

美国空袭的目标：武装分子

在非洲人口最多的国家，武装团体至少包括两个与“伊斯兰国”有关联的团体：东北部是博科圣地极端组织的衍生组织“伊斯兰国西非省”，西北部是鲜为人知的“伊斯兰国萨赫勒省”（ISSP），当地称为“拉库拉瓦”，在西北部十分活跃。

尽管官方没有具体说明是哪个组织遭到袭击，但安全分析人士表示，如果袭击目标确实是伊斯兰国武装分子，那么很可能是拉库拉瓦组织的成员。该组织去年在索科托和凯比等边境州变得更加致命，经常以偏远社区和安全部队为目标。

尼日利亚军方此前曾表示，该组织起源于邻国尼日尔，并在2023年军事政变后在尼日利亚边境地区变得更加活跃。那次政变导致尼日利亚和尼日尔关系破裂，并影响了两国在边境地区开展的多国军事行动。

武装分子骚扰村民

多位分析人士表示，拉库拉瓦自 2017 年左右开始在尼日利亚西北部活动，当时索科托的传统权威人士邀请它保护当地社区免受土匪团伙的侵害。

然而，据华盛顿哈德逊研究所的非洲研究员詹姆斯·巴内特称，武装分子“逗留时间过长，与一些社区领导人发生冲突……并强行执行对伊斯兰教法的严厉解释，疏远了大部分农村人口”。

据非洲良好治理组织的尼日利亚安全研究员马利克·塞缪尔称，“现在各社区公开表示，拉库拉瓦人比他们声称要保护他们免受侵害的土匪更加压迫和危险。”

塞缪尔说，拉库拉瓦控制着索科托州和凯比州的部分地区，并以杀戮、绑架、强奸和武装抢劫而臭名昭著。

但据总部位于美国的武装冲突地点与事件数据项目称，一些被归咎于拉库拉瓦的袭击是由伊斯兰国萨赫勒省发动的，该组织已从尼日尔的杜索地区扩展到尼日利亚西北部。

“ISSP一直保持低调，秘密渗透并巩固了其在尼日尔-尼日利亚边境的势力范围，现在也正在将其行动扩展到贝宁边境，”该项目在最近的一份报告中表示。

威胁根植于社会问题之中。

安全问题更多的是治理问题，而不是军事问题。

袭击动机各不相同，但这些团伙往往受到冲突热点地区国家和安全力量缺失的驱使，这使得招募人员变得容易。数据显示，这些热点地区也是该国贫困、饥饿和失业率最高的地区之一。

尼日利亚国防部长克里斯托弗·穆萨曾表示，军事行动只占解决该国安全危机所需措施的 30%，而剩余的 70% 则取决于良好的治理。

塞缪尔说：“偏远社区缺乏国家机构，这使得非国家行为体很容易进入这些社区，并把自己包装成最好的替代政府。”

美国空袭被视为对尼日利亚军方的关键支持

专家普遍认为，周四美国的空袭对尼日利亚安全部队来说至关重要，因为尼日利亚安全部队经常疲于奔命，火力不足，难以应对不同地区的多重安全危机。

在索科托等州，军方经常对武装分子藏身处发动空袭，尼日利亚也已开始大规模招募安全部队人员。但分析人士指出，针对这些团伙的军事行动通常无法持续，武装分子很容易骑着摩托车穿过连接北部多个州的广袤森林，转移到新的地点。

他们还经常利用人质（包括学童）作为掩护，使空袭变得困难。