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Daily Archives: 26. Dezember 2025
What to know about the militants targeted by US airstrikes in northwest Nigeria
(today)
The Nigerian military has said in the past that the group has roots in neighboring Niger and that it became more active in Nigeria’s border communities following a 2023 military coup. That coup resulted in fractured relations between Nigeria and Niger, and affected their multinational military operations along the porous border.
Burkina Faso and the AES vow to neutralize any threats as it detains 11 Nigerian soldiers
(December 9, 2025)
A Nigerian military aircraft, carrying 11 personnel, is detained in Burkina Faso for alleged airspace violation.
Burkina Faso, a member of the Alliance of Sahel States, claims the aircraft‘s presence was an unfriendly act that breached sovereignty.
The Sahel States Alliance has condemned the incident, emphasizing heightened alert for airspace protection.
The detention follows recent Nigerian airstrikes in Benin targeting coup plotters, which adds tension in the region.
Has Benin’s foiled coup made ECOWAS a West African heavyweight once more?
(December 16, 2025)
Between 2020 and 2025, nine coup attempts toppled five democratic governments and two military ones. The latest successful coup, in Guinea-Bissau, happened on November 28. Bissau-Guineans had voted in the presidential election some days before and were waiting for the results to be announced when the military seized the national television station, detained incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, and announced a new military leader.
ECOWAS, whose high-level delegation was in Bissau to monitor the electoral process when the coup happened, appeared on the back foot, unable to do much more than issue condemnatory statements. Those statements sounded similar to those it issued after the coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Guinea.
ECOWAS troops deployed as Benin foils coup attempt
(December 15, 2025)
Military help for the government came from the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS.
(…)
Several West African countries have witnessed coups in recent years, including Benin’s northern neighbours, Niger and Burkina Faso.
PHOTOS: Scenes from Sokoto communities hit by US strikes
Residents of Tangaza and Tambuwal local government areas of Sokoto State have confirmed separate drone attacks on their communities, carried out by the United States military.
Findings by our correspondent indicate that one of the attacks occurred in Jabo District of Tambuwal Local Government Area, a community previously not affected by insecurity.
Tensions over Venezuela: T&T in the middle as Trump and Maduro face off
BY the time the year comes to a close on December 31, the United States would have carried out one of the largest naval deployments to the Caribbean in more than two decades, sending multiple warships, 15,000 troops and the world’s largest aircraft carrier into waters once considered a “zone of peace”.
Accompanied by nearly 30 lethal so-called “boat strikes” that have killed at least 100 traversing the Caribbean and Pacific, the build-up sent the region’s small islands and South American countries into uncertainty, stoking fear of escalation, armed conflict and, in the case of Venezuela, the possibility of forced regime change.
Exclusive: US conducting surveillance flights over Nigeria after Trump intervention threat
(December 22, 2025)
Karr said the operation was an early sign the U.S. was rebuilding its capacity in the region after Niger ordered U.S. troops to leave a sprawling, newly built air base in the desert last year, and turned instead to Russia for security assistance.
„In recent weeks we‘ve seen a resumption of intelligence and surveillance flights in Nigeria,“ Karr said in an interview.
A former U.S. official said the aircraft is among several assets the Trump administration moved to Ghana in November.
Nigeria gave US intelligence for strikes on militants
“It’s Nigeria that provided the intelligence,” Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told local television network ChannelsTV, saying he was on the phone with US State Secretary Marco Rubio.
“We spoke twice. We spoke for 19 minutes before the strike and then we spoke again for another five minutes before it went on,” Tuggar said.
Trump says US launched ‘numerous’ deadly strikes on IS in Nigeria
“May God Bless our Military,” he said, adding provocatively, “MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.”
US Africa Command said in an X post that it conducted a strike “at the request of Nigerian authorities…killing multiple ISIS terrorists.”
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth took to X to praise his department’s readiness to take action in Nigeria, and said he was “grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation.”