38 UpdatesAuto-updates‘We have never experienced anything like this before,’ says local residentIn the Nigerian village of Jabo, Abubakar Sani, who lives a few houses from the scene of the explosion due to the US strikes, said the heat from the strike became “intense”.“Our rooms began to shake, and then fire broke out,” he told The Associated Press news agency.“The Nigerian government should take appropriate measures to protect us as citizens. We have never experienced anything like this before,” Sani added.For Balira Sa’idu, 17, the strikes worried her as she prepares to get married.“I am supposed to be thinking about my wedding, but right now I am panicking,” Sa’idu told the AP.“The strike has changed everything. My family is afraid, and I don’t even know if it is safe to continue with the wedding plan in Jabo,” she added.US goal behind Nigeria strikes remains unclear until Pentagon briefingRichard Weitz, senior fellow at NATO Defense College, says there has been “concern” in the international security community in recent months that ISIS-affiliated groups were spreading across Nigeria.“The northwest was seen as one possible area where they’re going to be gaining strength, so these could be seen as preemptive containment demonstrative strikes. If it’s followed up further, support for the Nigerian government and so on …“We don’t know precise details yet, we’re waiting for a Pentagon briefing or something like that; but I think the general idea was you hit a group that was vulnerable to these kinds of strikes that could pose a threat to civilians,” he added.Weitz explained that while the US’s aims remain unclear, the idea is to “weaken these groups – you can’t destroy them totally despite air strikes”.“The larger goal of the US military in Nigeria will become clear in the coming days,” he added.WATCH: ‘US air strikes in Nigeria are late but needed’Watch the comments by analyst Ebenezer Obadare below:Local official says US strikes likely to have hit fightersIsa Salihu, the chairman of the Tangaza local government in Sokoto State, has told Nigeria’s Premium Times newspaper that one of the areas hit by a US strike in the state was a “primary route” for fighters and is most likely to have hit them.The areas struck are believed to be hideouts of fighters along the Nigeria-Niger border in Sokoto, the official was quoted as saying.Salihu stressed that casualty figures have not been confirmed pending a formal security briefing, according to the newspaper.“That area serves as their primary route when entering from the Niger Republic,” Salihu reportedly said.“They frequent these zones and have established camps in the dense forests near the border.”Photos: Police barricade scene of US attack in SokotoPolice barricade the site of the US strike in Jabo, Sokoto State, northwestern Nigeria, December 26, 2025 [Qosim Suleiman/Al Jazeera][Qosim Suleiman/Al Jazeera]‘Trump would not have accepted a “no” from Nigeria’Malik Samuel, an Abuja-based researcher for Good Governance Africa, has questioned whether Nigeria had a real choice to oppose the US strike in its Sokoto State.“I think Trump would not have accepted a ‘no’ from Nigeria,” Samuel told AFP.Nigerian authorities are eager to be seen as cooperating with the US, Samuel added, even though “both the perpetrators and the victims in the northwest are overwhelmingly Muslim”.Trump’s military threat led to US-Nigeria cooperationKabir Adamu, managing director of Abuja-based Beacon Security and Intelligence Ltd, says the talks over potential cooperation between Washington and Abuja against the fighters in northern Nigeria started after Trump threatened to take unilateral military action in the country.“After Trump threatened to come guns blazing in Nigeria, we saw a Nigerian delegation visit the US,” Kabir told Reuters.“The attorney general was involved, and agreements were signed. Then we learned of US surveillance missions mapping terrorist locations.”Nigeria’s government had responded to Trump’s military threat by saying it intended to work with Washington against the fighters while rejecting US language that suggested Christians were in particular peril.Trump’s Republican allies laud Nigeria strikeThe supposed persecution of Christians in Nigeria has become a rallying cry for right-wing activists and lawmakers in the US in recent months.Although Nigerian authorities and analysts have stressed that armed groups in the country target Muslims and Christians alike, Trump and his allies have been promoting a narrative that Muslims are oppressing and killing Christians in the West African country.The Christmas Day strike allows Trump to present himself as a protector of Christians.His fellow Republicans have already lined up to praise the move.“We cannot turn a blind eye to Islamist terrorists conducting genocide against Christians in Nigeria and nearby area,” Congressman Don Bacon wrote in a social media post.“This military action is right. To intervene saves innocent lives. We praise our military for working around the clock to include Christmas.”Get instant alerts and updates based on your interests. Be the first to know when big stories happen.In Sokoto State, Nigerians ‘surprised’ by US strikeAcross Sokoto State, Nigerians awoke to loud blasts after the US targeted alleged ISIL (ISIS) bases in the area.For Haruna Kallah from Jabo, about 100km (60 miles) south of Sokoto City near the Niger border, the explosion from the strike “shook the whole town and everyone was scared”.“We initially thought it was an attack by Lakurawa,” the main armed group in Sokoto State, Kallah told the AFP news agency.But after learning that it was a US attack, it “surprised us because this area has never been a Lakurawa enclave and we have never had any attacks in the last two years”, Kallah said.Ayuba Abdulkarim, another Jabo resident, also told AFP that residents thought the town was under attack from Lakurawa.“Luckily no one was hurt, but fragments from the bomb caused damage to walls and roofs of nearby homes,” Abdulkarim said.US strikes ‘ultimately positive’Yinka Adegoke, the Africa editor for the news outlet Semafor, says the Nigerian government is arguing that the country is getting the support it has sought from the US for years.“It feels like the Nigerian government is finding itself in a situation where it is under duress from the Trump administration, who have their own … arguments about what is going on in Nigeria, which serve their own purpose,” Adegoke told Al Jazeera.He argued that the strikes are “ultimately positive” if they will make the northern regions safer for Nigerians by “taking out supposedly some terrorists”.Adegoke stressed there is no “strong evidence” displaying that Christians are particularly targeted in the attacks in the region, underscoring that a mosque was attacked recently in the country’s northeast.He said that places of worship are “vulnerable” targets in remote areas.“That seems to be a bigger reason for these attacks on the churches. It is insecurity for everyone,” Adegoke said.