Makuochi Okafor,West Africa Journalist, LagosAnd
Yang Tian
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has confirmed the assassination of a senior Islamic State (IS) leader in a joint operation with the United States.
“Our determined Nigerian Armed Forces, working closely with the United States Armed Forces, carried out a daring joint operation that dealt a major blow to the ranks of the Islamic State,” Tinubu said in a statement.
The operation was first announced by US President Donald Trump, who described Abu-Bilal al-Minuki as ISIS’s “global second-in-command”.
Al-Minuki was declared a Specially Designated Global Terrorist by Washington in 2023.
Writing on Truth Social, Trump said the joint mission in Africa was “executed perfectly…to eliminate the world’s most active terrorist.”
This assassination marks another significant setback for the Islamic State (IS) group after the assassination of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in 2019.
Tinubu said in a statement that Al-Manuki was killed “along with several of his lieutenants, during a strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin.”
The Nigerian military said the “precision operation” was made possible through the “recently formed US-Nigeria partnership and intelligence sharing efforts.”
It said Al-Minuki was promoted to “head of the General Directorate of States”, making him one of the most senior figures in the global IS hierarchy.
Before that, officials said he oversaw ISIS-related operations in the Sahel and West Africa, including attacks targeting civilians and minority communities.
The army also linked Al-Minuki to 2018 Dapchi schoolgirl kidnapping when more than 100 girls from a boarding school in northeastern Nigeria were taken by the militant group Boko Haram.
Nigerian army spokesman Samali Uba said it had already helped move fighters to Libya to support IS operations in North Africa. Before pledging allegiance to ISIS in 2015, he was described as a senior Boko Haram commander.
Trump described his death as a major blow to ISIS’s African and global networks, disrupting funding channels and command structures.
The US president thanked the Nigerian government for its “partnership”, adding that Minuki “will no longer terrorize the people of Africa or help plan operations targeting Americans”.
Nigeria and the United States have stepped up military cooperation as the country steps up efforts to combat extremist violence.
In April, ISIS claimed responsibility after gunmen killed at least 29 people at a soccer field in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Adamawa.
Last Christmas, the United States and Nigeria carried out a joint airstrike in the Nigerian state of Sokoto, targeting groups linked to ISIS.