Residents of a farming village in north-western Nigeria say there was no Islamic State presence in their community after debris from a recent US strike landed close to homes and a primary health facility, prompting overnight panic and questions about what had been targeted.
People in Jabo, a rural settlement in Sokoto state’s Tambuwal area, told CNN they heard a loud blast and saw flames overhead at about 10pm on Thursday before an object crashed into nearby fields. Some residents said they fled into the night, unsure whether further explosions would follow.
A local resident, Suleiman Kagara, told the broadcaster the village had never experienced anything similar and that there was no history of extremist activity in the area. He said the community included both Muslims and Christians living without local religious disputes, and that the incident came without warning.
Bashar Isah Jabo, a member of the Sokoto state assembly representing Tambuwal, described Jabo as a “peaceful community” with “no known history” of Islamic State, Lakurawa, or other armed groups operating there. He said the debris landed roughly 500 metres from the village’s only primary health centre, causing fear but no reported injuries.
The village accounts emerged after President Donald Trump announced that the United States had carried out what he called a “powerful and deadly” strike against Islamic State fighters in north-west Nigeria. In a public statement, US Africa Command said it conducted strikes in Sokoto state on 25 December in coordination with Nigerian authorities, with an initial assessment that multiple Islamic State members were killed at camps.
Nigerian officials later confirmed that the operation was conducted jointly, based on shared intelligence and targeting information. A statement attributed to Nigeria’s information ministry said “precision strike operations” were carried out against Islamic State hideouts in forest areas in Tangaza district, also in Sokoto state, and that debris from expended munitions fell in parts of Sokoto and in Kwara state. The ministry said there were no civilian casualties.
Reuters reported that Nigerian authorities said two Islamic State-linked camps in the Bauni forest were struck, with 16 GPS-guided munitions used and launched by MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aircraft operating from maritime platforms in the Gulf of Guinea. The government said the targets were “foreign ISIS elements” infiltrating from the Sahel and working with local affiliates, and that the strike had been approved by President Bola Tinubu.
Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar said the operation was intended to protect civilians and was not aimed at any religious group. This framing differed from remarks attributed to Mr Trump, who said the militants targeted in the operation had been killing Christians. Nigerian officials have repeatedly said militant violence affects multiple communities, including both Muslim-majority and Christian-majority areas, depending on region and group.
The location of the incident has sharpened scrutiny because north-west Nigeria is widely associated with kidnapping-for-ransom and banditry, while Nigeria’s best-known Islamist insurgencies have been concentrated for years in the north-east. Security analysts cited by the Associated Press said the most likely Islamic State-linked actor in the north-west is the Islamic State Sahel Province, known locally as Lakurawa, which has expanded in border areas including Sokoto and Kebbi states.
Residents in Jabo, however, told CNN they were not aware of armed group activity nearby and feared the strike debris could have caused casualties had it landed closer to the health centre or homes. The accounts underline a practical risk associated with long-range or high-altitude strikes: even when the intended target is elsewhere, fragments can travel and fall in inhabited areas, raising alarm and fuelling local rumours.
The Nigerian government has urged calm, while signalling that cooperation with the United States on intelligence and targeting could continue. Reuters reported that Nigerian authorities described the strike as part of a broader effort to counter transnational extremist networks moving south from the Sahel.
For villagers in Jabo, the immediate issue remains more basic: what landed near their fields, why it happened, and whether they can expect further incidents. Their statements, and those of their elected representative, amount to a direct denial that their community hosted Islamic State militants — a claim that sits alongside official accounts describing strikes on camps elsewhere in Sokoto’s forested border districts.
