JABO, Nigeria — On a seemingly ordinary Thursday night in the Nigerian village of Jabo, 40-year-old farmer Sanusi Madabo was winding down for the day when a startling noise shattered the calm. It sounded like an airplane crash, prompting Madabo and his wife to hurry outside their mud-brick home, only to be greeted by a sky alight with an intense red glow.
“It was almost like daytime,” Madabo recounted, describing how the fiery illumination held the night at bay for hours.
Little did he know, Madabo was witnessing a significant military operation: a U.S. strike targeting an alleged Islamic State militants’ camp.
Late Thursday, U.S. President Donald Trump made a public announcement regarding the operation, describing it as a “powerful and deadly strike” against IS militants in Nigeria. The Nigerian government later confirmed their involvement in coordinating with the U.S. for this military action.
A panicked village
On Friday, Nigerian government spokesperson Mohammed Idris elaborated on the details, stating that the attack was launched from the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean shortly after midnight. The operation utilized “16 GPS-guided precision” missiles, along with the deployment of MQ-9 Reaper drones.
Idris explained that the strikes were directed at locations believed to be utilized as “staging grounds by foreign” IS fighters who had infiltrated Nigeria from the Sahel region, which lies on the southern edge of Africa’s expansive Sahara Desert. However, the government did not provide any figures on the casualties sustained by the militants.
Residents of Jabo, a village in the northwestern Nigerian state of Sokoto, spoke to The Associated Press on Friday about panic and confusion among the villagers following the strikes, which they said hit not far from Jabo’s outskirts. There were no casualties among the villagers.
They said that Jabo has never been attacked as part of the violence the U.S. says is widespread – though such attacks regularly occur in neighboring villages.
Abubakar Sani, who lives on the edge of the village, recalled the “intense heat” as the strikes hit.
“Our rooms began to shake, and then fire broke out,” he told the AP.
“The Nigerian government should take appropriate measures to protect us as citizens,” he added. “We have never experienced anything like this before.”
It’s a ‘new phase of an old conflict’
The strikes are the outcome of a monthslong tense diplomatic clash between the West African nation and the U.S.
The Trump administration has said Nigeria is experiencing a genocide of Christians, a claim the Nigerian government has rejected.
However, Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs now said the strikes resulted from intelligence sharing and strategic coordination between the two governments.
Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s foreign minister, called the airstrikes a “new phase of an old conflict” and said he expected more strikes to follow.
“For us, it is something that has been ongoing,” Tuggar added, referring to attacks that have targeted Christians and Muslims in Nigeria for years.
Bulama Bukarti, a security analyst on sub-Saharan Africa, said the residents’ fear is compounded by a lack of information.
Nigerian security forces have since cordoned off the area of the strikes and access was not allowed.
Bukarti said transparency would go a long way to calm the local residents. “The more opaque the governments are, the more panic there will be on the ground, and that is what will escalate tensions.”
Foreign fighters operate in Nigeria
Analysts say the strikes might have been intended for the Lakurawa group, a relatively new entrant to Nigeria’s complex security crisis.
The group’s first attack was recorded around 2018 in the northwestern region before the Nigerian government officially announced its presence last year. The composition of the group has been documented by security researchers as primarily consisting of foreigners from the Sahel.
However, experts say ties between the Lakurawa group and the IS are unproven. The Islamic State West African Province – an IS affiliate in Nigeria – has its strongholds in the northeastern part of the country, where it is currently involved in a power struggle with its parent organization, Boko Haram.
“What might have happened is that, working with the American government, Nigeria identified Lakurawa as a threat and identified camps that belong to the group,” Bukarti said.
Still, some local people feel vulnerable.
Aliyu Garba, a Jabo village leader, told the AP that debris left after the strikes was scattered, and that residents had rushed to the scene. Some picked up pieces of the debris, hoping for valuable metal to trade, and Garba said he fears they could get hurt.
The strikes rattled 17-year-old Balira Sa’idu, who has been preparing for her upcoming marriage.
“I am supposed to be thinking about my wedding, but right now I am panicking,” she said. “The strike has changed everything. My family is afraid, and I don’t even know if it is safe to continue with the wedding plan in Jabo.”
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Adetayo reported from Lagos, Nigeria.
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