US and Nigerian forces kill top ISIS leader in Nigeria

President Donald Trump said that a joint operation by U.S. and Nigerian forces killed a top leader of the Islamic State group in Nigeria.

Trump wrote in a social media post that the mission in the early hours of Saturday targeted Abu Bakr al-Mainuki, who was part of the top leadership of the local IS chapter in West Africa.

Nigeria's government and military said the operation in the Lake Chad Basin, a stronghold of Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), was the result of a recently formed partnership with the U.S government.

Abu Bakr al-Mainuki was a ‘specially designated global terrorist’

Al-Mainuki was born in 1982 in Mainok, or Mainuki, a village in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno, the heart of an insurgency crisis following the formation of the Boko Haram militant group around 2009. He became one of the key commanders of ISWAP following its split from Boko Haram, and was a deputy to Abu Musab al-Barnawi, the ISWAP leader who was reported to have died in 2021.

A Nigerian military spokesperson said he was a “key ISIS operational and strategic figure” who was central to the group’s media operations, finances and weapons development.

The military also said that recent intelligence indicated he might have been appointed as “Head of the General Directorate of States,” making him second-in-command within the global IS hierarchy, a claim also made by Trump but disputed by some analysts.

In 2023, the U.S. Department of State listed him as a “Specially Designated Global Terrorist.”

US-Nigeria military cooperation has picked up

The Nigerian government acknowledged that U.S. intelligence and cooperation were key to the operation. It was a significant development after the countries' relations reached their nadir last year, when Trump accused the government of the West African nation of “Christian genocide."

The Nigerian government repeatedly denied the persecution of Christians, and engaged the U.S. government, leading to military cooperation. In February, the U.S. sent troops to Nigeria after an airstrike targeted IS last December.

Government officials had previously said U.S. troops were restricted to advisory and training roles, but this weekend's operation marks a new phase, according to analysts.

“It would demonstrate to them (militants) that the American-Nigerian operation has really picked up,” Bulama Burkati, a security analyst on sub-Saharan Africa, said. “We know the Nigerian forces lack the basic capacity to fight violent extremist groups, especially in places like the Lake Chad region, which is densely forested.”

Several armed groups operate in the resource-rich four-country Lake Chad region, funding their operations by taxing local communities. The region's landscape provides adequate cover for the groups to avoid military strikes.

A significant moment for Nigeria’s counterinsurgency

Analysts say Al-Mainuki is the most senior militant to be killed by any security agency in the West African nation. Militant leaders have usually died as a result of internecine rivalry among competing groups or factions.

His death would disrupt ISWAP’s operation in the short term, but precision strikes against the group need to be sustained, analysts say.

“This kind of counterterrorism operation can disrupt the group’s finance, recruitment, and planning at the provincial level,” Burkati said.

Nigeria faces a complex security crisis, battling multiple groups. On one hand are jihadi groups such as Boko Haram, ISWAP, and Lakurawa, and on the other are amorphous, criminal groups that specialize in kidnapping for ransom. Tens of thousands have been killed in attacks since 2009 to date, and millions have been displaced across the country, according to the United Nations.