One day after part of a missile fired by the United States reaching the village, falling a few meters from its only health unit, the Residents of Jabo in northwestern Nigeria are in a state of shock and confusion.
Suleiman Kagara, a resident of this quiet, predominantly Muslim farm in Tambuwal district, Sokoto state, told CNN who heard a loud noise and saw flames when a projectile passed over his head last Thursday (25).
Shortly afterwards, the object fell and exploded upon hitting the ground, sending residents fleeing in panic.
“We couldn’t sleep last night,” Kagara said. “We’ve never seen anything like it.”
At the time, he didn’t realize it, but what he was witnessing was part of a U.S. attack that President Donald Trump would later call a “Christmas gift” for terrorists.
Shortly after the impact in Jabo, Trump declared, last Thursday, that the United States had carried out a “powerful and lethal attack” against Islamic State (ISIS) militants in the region, accusing them of “brutally targeting and killing, mainly, innocent Christians, at levels not seen in many years, and even centuries”.
According to the US Africa Command (Africom), the operation neutralized several ISIS militants.
But Trump’s explanation left Kagara and other villagers confused.
Although parts of Sokoto face problems with banditry, kidnappings and attacks by armed groups, including Lakurawa – classified by Nigeria as a terrorist organization due to suspected links to the Islamic State – residents say that Jabo is not known for terrorist activities and that Christians coexist peacefully with the Muslim majority.
“In Jabo, we see Christians as our brothers. We don’t have religious conflicts, so we didn’t expect this,” he said.
Bashar Isah Jabo, a lawmaker who represents Tambuwal in the state assembly, described the village to CNN as “a peaceful community”, with “no known history of ISIS, Lakurawa or any other terrorist group operating in the area”.
He said the projectile hit a field “approximately 500 meters” from a Primary Health Center in Jabo and that although there were no casualties, the incident “caused fear and panic in the community”.
Nigeria’s Ministry of Information later stated that the government, in collaboration with the US, had “successfully carried out precision strike operations” against ISIS hideouts in the forests of Sokoto’s Tangaza district.
However, the ministry also noted that “during the course of the operation, debris from spent ammunition fell in Jabo” and another area in Kwara State in the north-central part of the country — although it emphasized that there were no civilian casualties.
The operation in Nigeria comes after Trump’s repeated statements about a significant threat to Christians in the country, prompting the president to order the Pentagon last month to prepare for possible military action.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told CNN on Friday that he spoke with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio before the attack, and that Nigerian President Bola Tinubu gave the “green light”.
Tuggar also stated that the operation was not religiously motivated, but aimed to ensure the safety of innocent civilians throughout the region.
Analysts say religion is just one of several factors behind the persistent security challenges Nigeria has faced for many years. Conflicts also arise from communal and ethnic rivalries, as well as tensions between farmers and herders over scarcity of land and water resources.
Nnamdi Obasi, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, said that while the US airstrikes could weaken some armed groups and represent a significant escalation in an offensive that Nigeria’s overstretched military has struggled with for years, “they are unlikely to be able to put an end to the multifaceted violence in different parts of the country, driven largely by governance failures.”
