On May 16, Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the elusive figurehead of ISIS in West Africa, was eliminated in a covert operation. An extremism analyst highlighted that the intelligence used was particularly challenging to uncover, as he had long been protected by intricate local networks throughout the region.
This significant blow to ISIS’s global operations has notably disrupted their activities in northeastern Nigeria. Despite this, the group’s supreme leader, Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, continues to evade capture, with Africa now serving as the focal point of the movement’s resurgence.
Dr. Omar Mohammed, a Senior Research Fellow at the GW Program on Extremism, explained to Fox News Digital that ISIS lacks a centralized hub in Nigeria. Instead, ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province) operates through numerous small, mobile camps scattered across the Lake Chad islands and within the Borno wilderness.
According to Mohammed, al-Minuki avoided modern technology like smartphones, opting for courier-based communication and frequently relocating between these camps to maintain secrecy.
Visual documentation of Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, captured before his demise on May 16, is available. (Pictures from History/Universal Images Group)
Former President Donald Trump alluded to intelligence sources that provided ongoing updates, which Mohammed identified as human intelligence, or HUMINT. This form of intelligence is notably difficult for adversaries to detect or thwart, offering a critical advantage in counter-terrorism efforts.
The precision strike successfully penetrated defenses that had been held for years.
“He would have utilized deep local networks the Nigerian military has struggled to penetrate for over a decade,” Mohammed added.
“His operational security would have been severe,” Mohammed said. “But two things eventually undo even careful targets: time generates patterns, and human sources are extremely difficult to defeat.”
“Despite severe operational security, al-Minuki was ultimately compromised through persistent human intelligence,” he noted. “Al-Minuki knew he was marked.”
ISIS caliph Abu Hafs al-Hashimi al-Qurashi is believed to have fled to Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region. (Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post)
The Nigerian army described the strike as “a meticulously planned and highly complex precision air-land operation” carried out Saturday between midnight and 4 a.m. in Metele, located in Borno State in northeast Nigeria.
U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, placed the strike in northeastern Nigeria, with Nigerian army communications pointing specifically to the Metele region.
Despite the tactical success, the current ISIS “caliph,” or overall leader, remains on the run, according to reports.
Al-Qurashi was “named following his predecessor’s death in Syria,” Mohammed claimed.
“He is deliberately faceless, with analysts describing this line of leaders as the ‘caliphs of the shadows,’” Mohammed said, noting al-Qurashi assumed leadership after Turkish authorities killed his predecessor in 2023.
While al-Qurashi’s exact location is unknown, reports indicate he traveled from Syria or Iraq through Yemen to Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region.
“This is where the financial hub also sits, meaning the entire center of gravity of the organization — leadership, finance, operational direction — has been quietly relocating to Africa for years,” Mohammed said.
“Africa has transitioned from a peripheral theater to the operational and financial center of global ISIS activity,” Dr. Omar Mohammed, Senior Research Fellow at the GW Program on Extremism, explained to Fox News Digital. (Jaron Willis/AFRICOM)
Data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project confirms this regional shift, showing more than two-thirds of all Islamic State global activity now takes place in Africa.
“Africa has transitioned from a peripheral theater to the operational and financial center of global ISIS activity,” Mohammed explained. “Africa is no longer a peripheral theater. It is the main one. Funding is overwhelmingly local and extractive — taxation, ransom, smuggling — which is precisely why these networks are so resilient.”
“Al-Minuki, for example, rose through ISWAP and operated across the Lake Chad Basin and into the wider Sahel,” he noted.
“Still, staking out al-Minuki is the most significant blow to ISIS’ global leadership architecture since the al-Baghdadi raid in 2019, executed in the theater that has quietly become the group’s beating heart,” Mohammed said before adding the strike was “not a one-off kinetic moment.”
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