A day after part of a missile fired by the United States hit their village, landing just meters from its only medical facility, the people of Jabo in northwestern Nigeria are in a state of shock and confusion.
Suleiman Kagara, a resident of this quiet and predominantly Muslim farming community in Tambuwal district of Sokoto state, told CNN he heard a loud blast and saw flames as a projectile flew overhead at around 10 p.m. on Thursday.
Soon after, it came crashing down, exploding on impact with the ground and sending the villagers fleeing in fear.
“We couldn’t sleep last night,” Kagara said. “We’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Kagara did not realize it at the time, but what he was witnessing was part of a US strike that President Donald Trump would later refer to as a “Christmas present” for terrorists.
Not long after the impact in Jabo, Trump declared on Thursday that the US had carried out a “powerful and deadly strike” against ISIS militants in the region, who he accused of “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even centuries!”
According to US Africa Command, the operation neutralized multiple ISIS militants.
But Trump’s explanation has left Kagara and his fellow villagers scratching their heads.
While parts of Sokoto face challenges with banditry, kidnappings and attacks by armed groups including Lakurawa – which Nigeria classifies as a terrorist organization due to suspected affiliations with Islamic State – villagers say Jabo is not known for terrorist activity and that local Christians coexist peacefully with the Muslim majority.
“In Jabo, we see Christians as our brothers. We don’t have religious conflicts, so we weren’t expecting this,” he said.
Bashar Isah Jabo, a lawmaker representing Tambuwal in the state parliament, described the village to CNN as “a peaceful community” that has “no known history of ISIS, Lakurawa, or any other terrorist groups operating in the area.”
He said the projectile had struck a field “approximately 500 meters” from a Primary Health Center in Jabo and that, while there were no casualties, the incident had “caused fear and panic within the community.”
Nigeria’s Information Ministry later said that the government, in collaboration with the US, had “successfully conducted precision strike operations” targeting ISIS hideouts in the forests of Tangaza district in Sokoto.
However, it also noted that “during the course of the operation, debris from expended munitions fell in Jabo,” and another area in north-central Kwara state – though it stressed there had been no civilian casualties.
The operation in Nigeria follows repeated claims by Trump of a significant threat to Christians in the country, with the president ordering the Pentagon last month to prepare for possible military action.
Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told CNN Friday that he had spoken with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio prior to the strike and that Nigerian President Bola Tinubu had given the “go ahead.”
However, Tuggar also said that this 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 multiple 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 scarce land and water resources.
Nnamdi Obasi, a senior adviser at the International Crisis Group, said that while the US airstrikes might weaken some armed groups and mark a significant escalation in an offensive that Nigeria’s overstretched military has struggled with for years, “they are unlikely to halt the multi-faceted violence in different parts of the country that is driven largely by failures of governance.”
