US says it launches strikes against Islamic State in Nigeria
Newshour
BBC
4.2 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 26 December 2025
⏱️ 48 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Nigeria's foreign minister has said US strikes against the Islamic State group were nothing to do with a particular religion, despite Donald Trump's assertions. He said that the attacks targeted militants killing Nigerians- irrespective of their faith.
Also in the programme: We head to the Netherlands to explore the Silicon Valley of farming; Malaysia's former prime minister Najib Razak has received a 15-year jail sentence over his involvement in one of the world's biggest corruption scandals; and could there be hope of a cure for dementia?
(Photo: The US defence department posted a short video that appears to show a missile being launched from a military vessel. Credit: US Department of Defense)
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, podcasts. |
| 0:08.6 | Hello and welcome to NewsHour from the BBC World Service, coming to live from London, with me, John Donison. |
| 0:15.0 | And we're going to start the programme in Africa, because after Iran, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, parts of the Caribbean, all targeted in U.S. military strikes in 2025, Nigeria is the latest country to be bombed by the United States. |
| 0:30.2 | The Pentagon says it was targeting the Islamic State Group in the north of Nigeria in attacks late on Christmas Day. |
| 0:40.6 | Well, this is what one eyewitness in Sokoto told the BBC. |
| 0:52.1 | At 1045 at night, something that looked like a plane flashed and crashed. Everyone thought it was a plane. It crashed in the fields, but not in a residential area as they claimed. Here in Jabu, we live peacefully, and there is no conflict between us and Christians. President Trump is not right saying the attack killed some ISIS fighters. No, not here. Our only fear is that if the weapon detonated contains some chemical that may harm us or our farms. |
| 1:19.9 | Well, in a post on social media, President Trump indeed said that he had struck terrorist scum who'd been slaughtering Christians at levels not seen for centuries. |
| 1:30.7 | For the latest, I've been speaking to Macquarie Ocalfa, our correspondent in the Nigerian city of Lagos. |
| 1:37.2 | We do know that this strike to place in the north-western part of Nigeria, specifically in Sokoto. |
| 1:42.8 | Now, a government spokesperson, the spokesperson of the presidency has also now confirmed the second |
| 1:49.0 | state, which is also in the north-west region, that's Zanfaira states. |
| 1:53.0 | We do know that this is in collaboration with the Nigerian government and the U.S. |
| 1:59.0 | government both have confirmed this. This is quite significant because |
| 2:04.0 | President Trump said the attack was on what he called Islamic State terrorists targeting Nigerian |
| 2:10.4 | Christians. But the foreign minister in Nigeria has said that the attacks that we see in Nigeria |
| 2:16.0 | don't target any specific religion, but the attacks, |
| 2:18.9 | it affects everybody both Christians and Muslims. And even the particular states where the strikes |
| 2:24.2 | have happened have actually been seen to have more Muslim population. However, seeing that this |
| 2:31.3 | is in collaboration with the Nigerian government, it's interesting |
| 2:35.3 | to see that they have worked together to launch this attack. |
| 2:38.4 | And do we know about the number of casualties, and indeed who was killed? |
| 2:42.7 | Neither the Nigerian government nor the US government have said anything yet about this. |
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