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The Nigerian government has confirmed that the military strike in the country by US forces was a joint action between the two countries and was based on intelligence from the Nigerian authorities.
Details of the impact of the strike are not yet publicly known.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria, Yusuf Maitama Tuggar told the BBC it was a “joint operation” targeting “terrorists”, and it “has nothing to do with a particular religion”.
Earlier the US President, Donald Trump has said his country had launched what he described as a “powerful and deadly strike” against the Islamic State (IS) group in north-western Nigeria, describing IS as “terrorist scum”, he accused the group of “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians”.
He said the US military “executed numerous perfect strikes”, while the US Africa Command (Africom) later reported that the attack on Chrsitmas Day Thursday, December 25, 2025, was carried out in co-ordination with Nigeria in the Sokoto state.
Tuggar also said the operation had been planned for some time.
In November, Trump ordered the US military to prepare to strike Islamist militant groups in Nigeria for killing Christians, without stating at the time which killings he was referring to but claims of a genocide against Nigeria’s Christians have been circulating in recent months in some right-wing US circles.

Some groups monitoring violence in Nigeria have said there is no evidence to suggest that Christians are being killed more than Muslims in Nigeria, which is roughly evenly divided between followers of the two religions.
An adviser to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, Daniel Bwala had told the BBC at the time that any military action against the jihadist groups should be carried out together. He said Nigeria would welcome US help in tackling the Islamist insurgents but noted that Nigeria was a “sovereign” country.
He also said the jihadists were not targeting members of a particular religion and that they had killed people from all faiths, or none.
President Bola Tinubu has also insisted there is religious tolerance in the country adding that the security challenges were affecting people “across faiths and regions”.