Thursday’s strikes on ISIS targets in Nigeria signal an intensifying American fight against jihadist expansion across Africa.
ISIS maintains a presence across the African continent, but its most dangerous concentrations lie in the west — particularly in northeastern Nigeria and the tri-border area connecting Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
To the east, ISIS fighters actively terrorize populations in Somalia, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where US special forces have previously conducted counterterrorism operations.
Local cooperation is paramount for success in such operations, and it’s notable that yesterday’s strikes were conducted in consultation with Nigerian authorities in Abuja.
The Nigerian government has not always been as effective as it should be in protecting Nigerian Christians and in fighting the twin jihadi menaces of Boko Haram and ISIS.
Any plan for counterterrorism in Africa must also consider Al Qaeda, which has multiple franchises in the continent and is arguably just as dangerous as ISIS.
In Somalia, Al Qaeda affiliate Al Shabaab is threatening to do what the Taliban did in Afghanistan and take control of the country.
While ISIS murders Christians, Muslims and others within African states, Al Qaeda threatens to transform entire nations into terrorist safe havens, creating breeding grounds for operatives who will eventually target Western interests directly.
Effective counterterrorism in Africa demands reliable local partners — and Western allies, too.
The UK, France and Germany all share concerns about stability in Africa and are keen to help. They have vested interests in stemming conflict and poverty in African nations to head off more mass migration and security threats in Europe.
Despite Abuja’s uneven record of protecting Christians, Nigeria remains a counterterrorism ally.
Without American boots on the ground, Washington depends on Nigerian forces to exploit the intelligence gained from airstrikes and maintain pressure through ground operations.
The US also has a long history of helping African countries, which has resulted in the kind of strong relationships that facilitate effective operations like Thursday’s strikes.
In some cases, this has gone wrong: In Niger, a military coup in 2023 led to the expulsion of US forces the following year, when the ruling junta turned instead to Russian mercenaries and Iran as preferred foreign partners.
The Russians and Iranians are mainly interested in Niger’s critical mineral reserves. Of particular concern to the US, given its opposition to the Iranian nuclear program, Niger is the world’s seventh largest producer of uranium.
But President Donald Trump is someone African partners cannot ignore.
The Nigerian authorities agreed to this week’s strikes, and to work with the United States on countering violence against Christians, for fear of alienating him.
He should capitalize on this leverage to secure local support for decisive counterterrorism action while deterring cooperation with adversaries like Iran and Russia.
Trump will also want to use the huge network of influence that US development assistance has created to stabilize countries at risk of collapse from the effects of conflict.
He has rightly focused on bringing peace to the eastern DRC, ending the conflict there that also affects Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi, and provides fertile ground for ISIS’ Central Africa Province to murder and plunder the local populations.
Sometimes the US and its allies may want to work around areas that are already lost to jihadi control.
But that strategy is necessary to strengthen governments in the coastal states that border Mali and Burkina Faso to stop cross-border contagion.
Likewise, working with autonomous regions like Somaliland and Puntland limits the strategic damage if Al Shabaab defeats the Somali government in Mogadishu.
The Nigeria strikes represent a necessary tactical action.
Turning those tactical strikes into long-term strategic success demands the kind of sustained commitment and clear-eyed prioritization that have too often eluded Western policy in Africa in the past.
Edmund Fitton-Brown is a former UK ambassador to Yemen and a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
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