A senior Islamic State group official, described as "one of the most active terrorists in the world", was killed in Nigeria during a joint operation with the United States, the presidents of the two countries announced on Saturday.

The attack targeted Abu Bilal al-Minuki, who was placed under US sanctions in 2023 for his links with the Islamic State (IS) group and presented by Donald Trump as the number two in the jihadist organization in the world.

"Tonight, at my direction, the brave American forces and the armed forces of Nigeria carried out to perfection a meticulously planned and highly complex mission to eliminate the world's most active terrorist from the battlefield," the US president said on his Truth Social network.

This is the second time in five months that he has launched an intervention by his army in Nigeria, a West African country plagued by jihadist violence, where he has denounced alleged persecution of Christians.

"For months, we hunted down this senior Islamic State leader in Nigeria, who was killing Christians, and we killed him — him and his whole gang," US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth celebrated on the social network X.

Abu Bilal al-Minuki is described by Nigerian forces and the US Africa Command (Africom) as "an operational and strategic figure who provided advice to Islamic State entities outside Nigeria on matters related to media operations, economic warfare, and the development and manufacture of weapons, explosives, and drones."

"Our determined Nigerian armed forces, working closely with the armed forces of the United States, conducted a bold joint operation that dealt a heavy blow to the ranks of the Islamic State," said Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, confirming Donald Trump's announcement.

"Precision air-to-ground operation"

According to the Nigerian army, it was a "precision air-to-ground operation, meticulously planned and extremely complex", which took place on Saturday between midnight and 04:00 (03:00 GMT).

The Nigerian president said the jihadist leader was killed "along with several of his lieutenants, during a strike against his compound in the Lake Chad basin."

According to the Nigerian defense forces, the death of Abu Bilal al-Minuki "eliminates a key link through which the Islamic State coordinated and directed its operations in different parts of the world."

Nigerian army spokesman Sani Uba said the operation was based on intelligence indicating that al-Minuki and his international terrorist cell had concealed a fortified enclave in a remote village of Metele, located in the Lake Chad Basin in the northeast of Borno State, the epicenter of a 17-year-long armed insurgency.

According to Washington, this man, also known as Abu Bakr al-Mainuki, originally from Borno State in northeastern Nigeria, was born in 1982.

"He will no longer terrorize"

"With its elimination, ISIS's operational capabilities around the world are significantly reduced," Mr. Trump asserted. "It will no longer terrorize the African population or contribute to planning operations targeting Americans," he added.

Northern Nigeria, Africa's most populous country, faces a double insecurity: on the one hand, violence from jihadist groups, and on the other hand, that of criminal gangs, locally called "bandits", who frequently carry out attacks against villages and mass kidnappings for ransom.

The surge in deadly attacks and kidnappings in recent months has drawn the attention of the United States. President Donald Trump claims that Christians in Nigeria are being "persecuted" and are victims of "genocide" perpetrated by "terrorists," a claim that Abuja and the majority of experts firmly deny, as the violence generally affects Christians and Muslims indiscriminately.

The US military, in coordination with Nigerian authorities, had already conducted strikes on Christmas Day in the state of Sokoto (northwest) targeting, according to Washington, Islamic State jihadists.

According to a recent report by the NGO ACLED, which tracks victims of conflicts worldwide, ISIS is increasingly focusing its activities on the African continent.

AFP