When U.S. warplanes struck suspected terrorist hideouts in Sokoto State on Christmas Day, December 25, 2025, the Federal Government publicly welcomed the action, describing it as a timely boost to Nigeria’s long-running war against terror. The strikes, Washington said, targeted Islamic State-linked elements operating beyond the traditional Boko Haram theatre.
Barely four weeks later, however, the country appears to be grappling with a harsher and more complex security crisis.
From Kaduna and Zamfara to Niger, Sokoto, Borno and Plateau states, armed groups have unleashed a deadly wave of coordinated attacks, killings and mass abductions. Rather than ending terror, the airstrikes seem to have reshuffled it, triggering retaliation, fragmentation and expansion of violent groups across northern Nigeria.
Today, Africa’s most populous nation is confronting not just Boko Haram and ISWAP, but bandits and emerging hybrid groups such as Lakurawa — a dangerous mix of ideology, organised crime and territorial ambition. Security analysts say the U.S. intervention may have acted as a catalyst, accelerating violence rather than suppressing it.
THE STRIKE THAT SHOOK NORTHERN NIGERIA
On December 25, U.S. forces carried out rare airstrikes on alleged jihadist targets in Sokoto State, North-West Nigeria. American officials described the mission as a decisive blow against terrorist networks spreading from the Sahel into Nigeria’s north-west.
Yet from the outset, the operation raised troubling questions: Who exactly was hit? How many militants were killed? Were civilians affected? Did the strikes truly degrade terrorist capacity, or would they provoke retaliation?
Official clarity was limited, but events on the ground soon provided grim answers.
Within 24 hours, attacks intensified across several states, with armed groups striking almost daily — as if daring further foreign intervention.
FROM AIRSTRIKES TO ANARCHY
The North-West, already Nigeria’s most volatile region, quickly became the epicentre of renewed bloodshed. The violence soon spilled into the North-Central and North-East.
Between December 26, 2025 and January 21, 2026, communities in Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger, Borno and Plateau states were repeatedly attacked. Dozens were killed, while hundreds were abducted in large-scale kidnapping operations targeting villages, markets, highways and even places of worship.
KADUNA EMERGES AS GROUND ZERO
One of the most shocking incidents occurred on January 18, when armed gangs stormed three churches in Kajuru Local Government Area during worship and abducted 177 worshippers in a single operation. Days later, on January 21, five soldiers were killed and several others injured when a Boko Haram suicide bomber rammed into a military convoy at the Timbuktu Triangle in Borno State.
Security experts believe bandits exploited the confusion following the airstrikes to expand operations, seize territory and boost ransom revenues.
“The strikes disrupted some jihadist cells, but they also created power vacuums,” a security source told Saturday Vanguard. “Bandits and hybrid groups moved quickly to fill those gaps.”
BOKO HARAM, ISWAP REFUSE TO RETREAT
Contrary to expectations, jihadist groups in the North-East did not retreat after the U.S. intervention. Attacks on military positions continued, rural communities remained under siege, and insurgents retained mobility across Borno and neighbouring states.
As has happened repeatedly over the past decade, Boko Haram and its splinter factions adapted, survived and reconfigured.
RISE OF LAKURAWA IN SOKOTO
Perhaps the most disturbing post-strike development is the rapid expansion of Lakurawa, an emerging armed group operating along Nigeria’s north-western border.
Unlike traditional bandits motivated mainly by profit, Lakurawa blends extremist ideology with organised crime. The group reportedly taxes communities, recruits local youths, conducts coordinated raids and establishes territorial control. Security officials fear it could become a bridge between Sahelian jihadist networks and Nigeria’s bandit economy, potentially turning the North-West into a full-scale insurgency zone.
THE SHOCKING NUMBERS
Data compiled from security reports, humanitarian organisations and media accounts paint a grim picture. Between December 25, 2025 and January 21, 2026, at least 183 people were killed and 366 abducted.
The worst-hit states include Kaduna, Niger, Zamfara, Katsina, Sokoto, Borno and Plateau. These figures are conservative, as many rural attacks go unreported or are officially downplayed. In some communities, survivors bury their dead in silence.
BEFORE THE U.S. AIRSTRIKES
Nigeria’s security crisis predates the airstrikes by decades. Since 2014, violence has escalated sharply. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, 614,937 people were killed between May 2023 and April 2024, while over 2.2 million were kidnapped within the same period.
Although kidnappings reportedly fell slightly in 2024, violence surged again in 2025, with an estimated 6,800 deaths recorded in the first half of the year alone.
A WAR WITHOUT FRONTLINES
Nigeria’s conflict has now morphed into a multi-layered war involving:
Terrorist groups pursuing ideological goals,
Bandits driven by ransom and territorial control, and
Hybrid actors like Lakurawa, combining extremism with organised crime.
Bombing one group often strengthens another. As a senior military officer admitted privately: “We are fighting shadows. When you hit one camp, three new groups emerge elsewhere.”
KIDNAPPING AS AN INDUSTRY
Perhaps the most alarming trend is the industrialisation of kidnapping. Armed gangs now operate like corporations — with intelligence units, strike teams, negotiators, logistics networks and financial channels. Ransoms fund weapons purchases, recruitment and sustained violence, making Nigeria one of the world’s kidnapping hotspots.
A DANGEROUS CROSSROADS
Beyond bombs and bullets lies a deeper crisis driven by weak governance, poverty, unemployment, porous borders, arms proliferation and corruption. Until these structural issues are addressed, military victories may remain temporary.
The U.S. airstrikes may have weakened specific militant cells, but they also accelerated the fragmentation of armed groups, pushing Nigeria toward a more decentralised and unpredictable era of violence — one where terror, crime and militias compete relentlessly for territory, influence and blood.
