U.S.-Nigerian Strikes Killed Dozens of Civilians, Villagers SayAFRICOM and the Nigerian army claimed they killed 175 “terrorists” over the course of three days in May.
Story by Adamu Aliyu Ngulde MAIDUGURI, Nigeria—On the evening of May 16, the village of Metele in Nigeria’s Borno state was hit by a series of airstrikes carried out in coordination between the U.S. and Nigerian militaries. “Children were playing, women were preparing meals, and there was nothing to suggest that anything unusual was about to happen,” recalled Goni Ahmed, a local resident who directly witnessed the strikes. He described a scene in which village life was suddenly destroyed by the attack. “First, we heard aircraft overhead. Shortly afterward, there were loud explosions that shook the ground. After the blasts, I could hear people shouting, crying, and calling for assistance. The sounds of panic and confusion continued for quite some time.” Panic enveloped Metele and villagers fled their homes, not knowing if further strikes would take place. “Many people in the community still remember those days as some of the most difficult we have experienced,” Ahmed recalled. Ali Zagina lost four relatives in the strike, and his house was destroyed. “We are in great pain, a pain I believe we will never forget,” Zagina said. “As a resident of Metele this is one of the saddest days of my life.” Zagina, his wife and his four children are now renting a home in the Gomari neighborhood of Maiduguri. “I could not recognize my house or many parts of the community because almost the entire area had been reduced to ashes,” he told Drop Site News. The strikes were part of an expanding war between the Nigerian government and local Islamist groups which has drawn the increased involvement of the Trump administration, with little scrutiny. Metele, a remote community in northern Borno State near the Nigeria-Niger border, has long been affected by insurgent activities. Security sources and local residents have frequently identified the area and its surroundings as locations where fighters affiliated with the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) operate. In the days immediately after the bombing of Metele, U.S-Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced strikes across northeastern Nigeria, allegedly killing huge numbers of ISWAP fighters, claiming in a statement posted online that, “In coordination with the Nigerian Armed Forces our #counterterrorism efforts from May 16-18, 2026, eliminated more than 175 ISIS terrorists in Northeastern Nigeria.” Trump claimed they had killed Abu Bilal al-Minuki, a global commander in the Islamic State, as well as a number of other senior leaders of the group. The Islamic State has not confirmed these or other killings; Nigeria previously claimed in 2024 to have killed al-Minuki. In a post on Truth Social the President described the strikes as “flawlessly executed” and called al-Minuki “the most active terrorist in the world.” The Nigerian Army echoed these statements, calling it a “landmark joint counter-terrorism operation of historic significance.” The army said the raid in Metele was a “complex precision air-land operation” that killed other “terrorist commanders.” Yet villagers in Metele said that the attacks hit residential areas and killed innocent people. “The community experienced a tragic airstrike attack recently which caused heavy casualties and destruction in Metele,” Zannah Abba Aji, the village head of Metele told Drop Site News. He was in Maiduguri, the state capital, when the strikes took place. “Many innocent civilians were affected during the incident,” he said. In the aftermath of the attack, Aji gathered a list of 27 people that he said were civilians that were killed in the attack. The list, which he shared with Drop Site, included 12 women and children. Other villagers who were injured in the bombings were sent by truck south to Maiduguri for treatment. In an interview, Dr. Adam Asil Tijjani, who works at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital, confirmed that several noncombatants had been killed in the strikes, telling Drop Site that two women and four children received in the aftermath of the bombings had died from their injuries there. Tijjani said that the hospital was overwhelmed with patients with burns, fractures, shrapnel wounds, and trauma-related injuries—forcing them to route some of the casualties to another facility called the State Specialist Hospital. “We received many patients within a short period,” he said. Neither AFRICOM nor the Nigerian army responded to a request for comment on the civilian deaths. Civilian TollNigeria has been at war for several years with ISWAP—an off-shoot of the insurgent army Boko Haram, which has also been fighting the Nigerian government since 2009. In addition to battling the government, ISWAP and Boko Haram have viciously fought each other across the Lake Chad Basin which spans West and Central Africa. Besides trumpeting the elimination of senior militant leaders, the U.S. government has provided little detail or transparency about who is actually being killed in its attacks, while the Nigerian government has likewise shown little discretion in its own counterinsurgency practices. Last month, after a terrorist attack blamed on ISWAP at a crowded market killed nearly 200 people, the governor of Borno stated that civilian areas can be considered legitimate military targets for retaliatory strikes. A report by the Pentagon’s Inspector General released days before the attack on Metele concluded that because of funding cuts and reassignments the Department of War is not equipped to comply with its Civilian Harm Mitigation and Response Action Plan. “We’re departing from the rules and norms that we’ve tried to establish as a global community since at least World War II,” Wes J. Bryant, an analyst who worked on civilian harm mitigation at the Pentagon said in an interview with ProPublica. “There’s zero accountability.” Bryant lost his job last year amid a purge of staff focused on mitigating civilian casualties in strikes. Trump has justified military involvement in Nigeria as part of an attempt to halt attacks on Christians in the country by Islamist groups. People of all faiths have been killed in Nigeria during a complex and multisided insurgency against the government, and the Nigerian government itself is multiconfessional. But activists in the U.S. have spent years working to convince American leadership to view the war as a religious campaign in defense of Christians in particular. The messaging appears to have been successful in convincing Trump to act. On December 25, 2025 the U.S. carried out its first confirmed airstrike in Nigeria, in Sokoto state in the northwest. No civilian casualties were reported. The strikes, President Trump said, targeted “ISIS Terrorist Scum” who have been “viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!” Two months later, U.S. troops began arriving in the country for counterterrorism operations. In a press briefing at the time, AFRICOM Commander General Dagvin R.M. Anderson Commander confirmed the deployment, stating that a meeting with Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the end of 2025 had resulted in “increased collaboration between our two nations,” and describing Nigeria as “a very willing and capable partner who requested the unique capabilities that only the U.S. can bring.” The series of strikes in May that allegedly killed al-Minuki, alongside dozens of civilians in Metele, has been celebrated by Trump administration officials as a major victory of this new intervention. In a cabinet meeting last week, War Secretary Pete Hegseth spoke about the strikes in Nigeria, claiming that the U.S. had killed a top ISIS commander “responsible for killing Christians and trying to target the U.S. homeland.” In an appearance before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on June 3, Secretary of State Marco Rubio made similar comments, stating that the administration was “very concerned about violence against Christians,” and that counterterrorism cooperation with Nigeria would continue to help address this issue. History of ViolenceMetele has experienced major attacks by militant groups before. In November 2018, Islamist insurgents launched a deadly assault on a Nigerian military base in the town. The attack resulted in the deaths of at least 40 soldiers, making it one of the most significant attacks on military personnel during the insurgency in northeastern Nigeria. For many residents, the recent events have revived memories of that earlier attack. Community members say the people of Metele have repeatedly found themselves caught in the middle of a conflict that has lasted for more than a decade. According to residents interviewed for this report, the community has suffered from both insurgent violence and military operations over the years. They argue that the latest incident represents another tragic chapter in the history of a town that has endured repeated insecurity and loss. In the meantime, the number of civilian victims of U.S. operations in the war in Nigeria continues to rise. One of the women who died at the hospital following the attack on Metele, Yagana Ya-Umar, had four children. Her brother, Ahmadu Ya-Umar, travelled with her down to the hospital in a pick up truck. “The family is deeply saddened by this tragic loss,” he said, adding that he hopes that government authorities will provide support to the people impacted. Goni Ahmed, who witnessed the airstrikes, said that he remains haunted by the day of terror that devastated the village. “What remains with me most is the fear, confusion, and suffering that followed the explosions,” he said. “I remember seeing families searching for one another and people trying to make sense of what had happened. Many people were crying and calling out the names of their loved ones. Parents were searching for their children, and family members were trying to locate relatives amid the confusion. Those sounds are among the memories that remain with me most strongly.” Story published in collaboration with Egab. 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