Australia backs Donald Trump’s strikes targeting ‘ISIS terrorist scum’ in Nigeria
The Australian government supported US airstrikes targeting the Islamic State in Nigeria.
US President Donald Trump announced in a Christmas Day social media post that he had launched a “powerful and deadly strike against the ISIS terrorist scum” in restive northwestern Nigeria.
Mr. Trump has long accused the militants of attacking Christians in the Muslim-majority north.
“I have previously warned these terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughter of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight there was,” he said on Truth Social.
The Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed in a post to
“Any form of terrorist violence, whether against Christians, Muslims or other communities, remains an affront to Nigeria’s values and international peace and security,” a spokesman said.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong said the Australian government supports US-Nigeria cooperation against the Islamic State group, including Friday’s attacks.
“ISIS terrorizes people all over the world. Its extremist, violent ideology must be stopped,” he said.
It comes as Anthony Albanese continues to grapple with the fallout from the allegedly “ISIS-inspired” attack on Bondi Beach that left 15 dead.
Police allegedly found homemade Islamic State-style flags in a car belonging to alleged gunmen Sajid and Naveed Akram.
“Last Sunday’s ISIS-inspired brutality reinforces the rapidly changing security environment in our country,” Mr Albanese said in a statement earlier this week.
The Islamic State group, also known as ISIS or Daesh in Arabic, once controlled large regions spanning Iraq and Syria; There were also aligned groups operating in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and parts of southeast, central Asia, and Africa.
Since the fall of Baghuz in western Syria in 2019, the group and its affiliates have become increasingly active in the Sahel and parts of Africa such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, where central authority has been greatly diminished.
Since the 2000s, Nigeria has been fighting an insurgency by jihadist group Boko Haram, which pledged allegiance to ISIS in 2014.
Nearby Chad, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger face active jihadist insurgencies.
Bamako, the capital of Mali, is under siege by the Al Qaeda-linked JNIM group.
