abuja, nigeria
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The people of Jabo in northwestern Nigeria are in a state of shock and confusion a day after some of the missiles fired by the United States hit their village, landing just meters from their only medical facility.
Suleiman Kagara, a resident of a quiet, predominantly Muslim rural area in Sokoto state’s Tambuwal district, told CNN he heard a loud explosion and saw flames at around 10pm on Thursday as a projectile flew overhead.
Moments later, it hit the ground and exploded, causing the villagers to flee in fear.
“I couldn’t sleep last night,” Kagara said. “I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Kagara didn’t realize it at the time, but what he was witnessing was part of a U.S. attack that President Donald Trump later called a “Christmas present” to terrorists.
Shortly after the clashes in Jabo, President Trump declared on Thursday that the United States had launched a “powerful and deadly attack” on ISIS militants in the region, accusing them of “targeting primarily innocent Christians and viciously killing them at levels not seen in years or even centuries.”
According to U.S. Africa Command, the operation neutralized multiple ISIS fighters.
But Trump’s explanation leaves Kagara and his fellow villagers scratching their heads.
Although parts of Sokoto face challenges such as banditry, kidnappings and attacks by armed groups including Laklawa (classified by Nigeria as a terrorist organization due to suspected links to Islamic State), villagers insist that Jabo is not known for terrorist activities and that local Christians coexist peacefully with the Muslim majority.
“In Habo, we consider Christians to be our brothers. We have no religious conflicts, so we did not expect anything like this,” he said.
Bashar Isa Jabo, the lawmaker who represents Tambuwal in the provincial parliament, told CNN that the village is a “peaceful community” with “no known history of ISIS, Laklawa or other terrorist groups operating in the area.”
He said the projectile hit a field “approximately 500 meters” from Jabo’s primary health center, and while there were no casualties, the incident “caused fear and panic in the community.”
Nigeria’s Ministry of Intelligence later announced that the government, in cooperation with the United States, had “successfully conducted a precision strike operation” targeting an ISIS hideout in the forests of Sokoto’s Tangaza area.
However, the report also noted that “depleted ammunition fragments fell in Jabo and other areas in north-central Kwara state during the operation,” but stressed that there were no civilian casualties.
The operation in Nigeria comes after President Trump has repeatedly asserted grave threats against Christians in the country, and last month he ordered the Pentagon to prepare for possible military action.
Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Yusuf Tugar told CNN on Friday that he spoke to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio before the attack and that Nigerian President Bola Tinubu gave the “green light”.
However, Tager also said the operation was not a religious issue, but aimed at ensuring the safety of innocent civilians across the region.
Analysts say religion is just one of several factors behind the persistent security challenges Nigeria has faced for years. Conflict also arises from communal and ethnic tensions, and tensions between farmers and herders over scarce land and water resources.
Nnamdi Obasi, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, said the U.S. airstrikes could weaken some armed groups and mark a significant escalation in attacks that Nigeria’s overstretched military has struggled with for years, but “they will not stop the multidimensional violence in many parts of the country that are largely due to governance failures.”
