U.S. Targets ISIS in Nigeria with Tomahawk Missiles

The United States launched a Tomahawk cruise missile strike against ISIS in northwestern Nigeria.

The U.S. Department of War reported this on its official X account.

U.S. President Donald Trump authorized the strike.

Back in November, Trump threatened to cut off aid and intervene in Nigeria to ‘completely destroy Islamic terrorists’ if the country’s government ‘failed to protect Christians,’ and instructed the Department of War to prepare for ‘possible actions.’

.@POTUS “Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and… pic.twitter.com/ct7rUW128t

— Department of War ?? (@DeptofWar) December 26, 2025

Background to the strike

In March 2025, U.S. Congressman Chris Smith urged the State Department to designate Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern,’ citing what he described as an ‘existential threat’ to the country’s Christian population.

In response to Trump’s statement, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said that his country is not a religiously intolerant state.

Boko Haram

For more than 20 years, Nigeria has been in conflict with the jihadist group Boko Haram. According to the United Nations, since 2009 alone, jihadists have killed more than 40,000 people, and over two million Nigerians have been forced to flee their homes.

Boko Haram – a name in the Hausa language meaning “Western education is a sin” – considers the federal government, northern state governments, as well as the political and religious elite to be morally corrupt. Boko Haram rejects the West and the secular state and seeks the widespread implementation of “pure” Sharia law.

Typical targets of Boko Haram attacks include churches, individual Christians, people engaged in “non-Islamic” activities, Muslim critics, village elders, schools, police stations, government buildings, newspapers, and banks.

Tomahawk cruise missiles

The AGM/RGM/UGM/BGM-109 Tomahawk family consists of variants of subsonic cruise missiles powered by a turbofan engine, weighing about 1,300 kg (1,600 kg with a booster), with a range of up to 2,500 km, a warhead weighing around 450 kg, and multiple guidance systems.

The differences between them, aside from guidance systems and warheads – nuclear, conventional, or cluster – lie in their basing: ground-based, ship-launched, submarine-launched, and air-launched.

The strike on Nigeria was carried out using the ship-launched version of the missiles, which were previously used in strikes on Syria in April 2017.