Trump Bombs Nigeria, Claims To Be Protecting Christians Against ISIS

30-12-2025: On Christmas Day, US President Donld Trump announced that the military had conducted airstrikes against ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) “terrorist scum” who had been targeting and killing Christians in north-west Nigeria. Reportedly, the bombing took place at the request of the Nigerian government and took the lives of multiple ISIS militants in Sokoto state.[1] Overseeing the strikes was the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), which is based not in Africa but in Stuttgart, Germany. Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar told the BBC that the air strikes were a joint operation targeting terrorists which “has nothing to do with a particular religion”.[2] Nigeria is a vast nation in West Africa with a population of some 220 million people, which is largely split between Christians and Muslims. Muslims have been targeted for attacks and killings by Boko Haram, while many Christian churches and communities claim that they are the targets of the violence. Others say that everyone is a potential victim, regardless of their background or belief.[3]

Violent terror

Claims from the Western media that the US government is concerned about the well-being of Christians in Nigeria are risible. The terrorists waging fratricidal war on civilians across Nigeria, whether they are ISIS or Al Qaeda or Boko Haram are there as the result of the NATO bombing and destruction of Libya in 2011,[4] and imperialism’s constant covert funding and arming of them. Moreover, this comes about a month after former ISIS and Al Qaeda head chopper Mohamed Al-Jolani (Ahmad Al-Sharaa) was welcomed into the White House by President Trump,[5] who infamously claimed that Al-Jolani had a “rough past”. Al-Jolani, ludicrously installed as Syrian “President”, and his Al Qaeda barbarians have instead been slaughtering Christians, Alawites and Druze in Syria over the past 12 months,[6] as many who opposed the US-led regime change war on Syria had warned.

Boko Haram is based in north-east Nigeria, but there are significant claims that it is actually a covert CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) operation to counter the influence of Russia and China in Africa, even at the cost of mass casualty terrorism, violence and war.[7] ISIS in Nigeria plays the same role as Boko Haram, and they may even share personnel. Suspiciously, there is now a new terrorist outfit unleashing chaos across Nigeria and neighbouring Sahel states. JNIM (Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin) militants attacked the town of Woro in November but were repelled by the Nigerian military. JNIM has pledged allegiance to Al Qaeda and has co-ordinated attacks on Burkina Faso, Niger, Ivory Coast and Togo for years. Before their attack on Woro, JNIM released a video threatening to expand into Benin, Togo, Ghana and Nigeria.[8] JNIM was apparently founded in 2017, and it is suspicious that it is hitting the headlines at this time. It is almost as if the masses were becoming blasé about the terror of ISIS and Al Qaeda, and a new Western fabricated, but deadly, bogeyman was required.

Counter the AES/BRICS

Far from US imperialism intervening “against” ISIS, it is plain to see that the empire is instead facilitating the blood work of ISIS/Al Qaeda/Boko Haram/JNIM as part of a proxy war against not only Nigeria, but the neighbouring Alliance of Sahel States (AES), which in turn is a proxy war on Moscow and Beijing and the very concept of multipolarity. A series of progressive coups in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso has led to the formation of the AES, which have then proceeded to expel French colonial troops for the first time in more than 100 years. In response to the enormous popularity of the AES and particularly the young Burkinabe leader Ibrahim Traoré, some troops in Benin attempted a similar coup on December 7, no doubt hoping to emulate, or even join, the AES. However, the attempted coup was thwarted by the immediate intervention of the Nigerian air force working with French special forces.[9] Despite being expelled by the AES states, French imperialism, alongside its US ally is desperately trying to “contain and roll back” the AES and the process of growing African sovereignty.

Trump’s “attack” on ISIS in Nigeria comes barely a week after the suspicious Bondi Beach terror attack in Sydney, Australia.[10] Supposedly, the alleged gunmen were agents or affiliates of ISIS and set an ISIS flag up on the windscreen of their vehicle before opening fire on a Jewish Hanukkah celebration. This is a dubious circumstance at the very least, as it is well known that ISIS has never confronted, let alone attacked Israel (even as Judaism is not specifically Israeli). Just as shady is the unfounded claim that the Iranian government was involved in the incident, when it is clear that the extreme Sunni fundamentalist ISIS views the Shia Islamic Republic of Iran as infidels. It is much more likely that the Bondi Beach attack on December 14 was a staged false flag with many political uses for imperialism, and the Australian state domestically, e.g., more censorship of free speech, more online surveillance and more bans on pro-Palestine protests.

Why would US and European imperialism need to covertly orchestrate bloodthirsty terrorism on a mass scale across Africa via ISIS/Al Qaeda/Boko Haram/JNIM et al? Just one piece of news from the socialistic People’s Republic of China (PRC) gives some indication. On December 26, the PRC reached a total of 50 000 kilometres of high-speed rail, with the opening of the Xi’an-Yan’an line.[11] This is more than the rest of the world combined, while the USA does not have one kilometre of high-speed rail. The PRC is so far out in front, there is no comparison. The benefits of public ownership of the major means of production and a planned economy should be obvious. The PRC’s gargantuan economic power has meant that it is able to offer almost all African states trade, investment and infrastructure building projects that capitalism in the West is simply unable to. PRC based firms have been doing this in multiple African states, assisting with much needed economic development.

Not only this, the PRC’s combination with its non-imperialist allies in the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa plus 15 other Global South states) alliance, arguably enabled the emergence of the AES, via military cooperation with the Russian Federation. It is true that the Nigerian government does collaborate and cooperate with both US and European imperialism to police West Africa. But at the same time, Nigeria is a partner member of BRICS. By unleashing ISIS/Al Qaeda/Boko Haram/JNIM across Nigeria and the Sahel, imperialism has the aim of breaking apart the influence of both the AES and BRICS on the African continent. It is in the vital interests of working people to defend Nigeria, Africa, the AES and BRICS against imperialism, whatever the political limitations of such projects may be. Imperialist engineered catastrophes such as mass terrorism, proxy wars and outright regime change operations can be blunted and reversed by a rising working-class conscious of the need for an urgent transition to socialism.

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[1] www.cbc.ca/news/world/us-nigeria-airstrike-christmas-day-9.7028229 (29-12-2025)

[2] www.straitstimes.com/world/united-states/us-launches-strike-against-islamic-state-militants-in-northwest-nigeria (29-12-2025)

[3] www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-isis-nigeria-christians-christmas-strikes-b2890541.html (29-12-2025)

[4] www.x.com/BrianJBerletic/status/2004415518850293857 (29-12-2025)

[5] www.swarthmorephoenix.com/2025/12/04/the-duality-of-the-u-s-foreign-policy-jolani-in-the-white-house/ (29-12-2025)

[6] www.asiatimes.com/2025/03/in-syria-sunni-muslim-militias-are-killing-alawites-and-christians/ (29-12-2025)

[7] www.globalresearch.ca/is-boko-haram-a-cia-covert-op-to-divide-and-conquer-africa/5431177?doing_wp_cron=1766736288.2946488857269287109375 (29-12-2025)

[8] www.fij.ng/article/jnim-what-to-know-about-nigerias-latest-terror-headache/ (29-12-2025)

[9] www.dailypost.ng/2025/12/16/benin-coup-30-people-mostly-soldiers-jailed/ (29-12-2025)