The group of lawmakers made their position known via their official X handle.
The Conference of Republican Lawmakers under the United States House of Representatives has lauded President Donald Trump over the strikes launched in Sokoto State, Nigeria.
The group of lawmakers made their position known via their official X handle.
“Thank you, President Trump, for taking decisive action against the ISIS terrorists who have been slaughtering Christians in Nigeria,” they wrote on the X handle dedicated to the Republican Conference in the United States House of Representatives.
The comments come as Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Yusuf Tuggar, framed the recent United States airstrikes against terrorists in the country as a test of intelligence-sharing trust and narrative control.
This is even as he noted that the strikes were a result of coordination between Nigeria and the United States.
Tuggar spoke on Friday, hours after the US Department of War and President Donald Trump announced that American forces had carried out airstrikes against terrorists operating in Nigeria.
According to the minister, beyond the military outcome, the operation was designed to avoid inflaming religious tensions in a country he described as deeply plural.
“Now that the US is cooperating, we would do it jointly, and we would ensure, just as the President emphasised yesterday before he gave the go-ahead, that it must be made clear that it is a joint operation, and it is not targeting any religion nor simply in the name of one religion or the other,” Tuggar said on Channels TV.
He stressed that Nigeria’s internal diversity informed both the decision-making and public communication surrounding the strike.
“We are a multi-religious country, and we are working with partners like the US to fight terrorism and safeguard the lives and properties of Nigerians,” the minister said.
Describing the strikes as the culmination of long-standing appeals for deeper security cooperation, Tuggar added, “It is a collaboration, it is what we have been calling for.”
The minister also revealed that Nigeria played a central operational role by supplying the intelligence that triggered the US action.
“It was Nigeria that provided intelligence for the US strike in Nigeria. I spoke with the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, for 19 minutes before the strike, and we agreed to talk to President Tinubu for his go-ahead, and he gave it,” the Bauchi-born minister said.
He further disclosed last-minute coordination between both governments, noting, “After the approval, I spoke again with Marco Rabio five minutes before the strike was launched against the terrorists.”
On Thursday, the US Department of Defense said “multiple ISIS terrorists” were killed in the strikes conducted at the behest of the Nigerian government. President Trump also announced the operation, declaring, “The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing. Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper.
“May God bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues,” he wrote on Truth Social.
While details of the attack were not immediately released, the US Department of War later published a short video clip showing an airstrike in Nigeria. The US Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, and the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) said the strikes in Sokoto were carried out in “coordination with Nigerian authorities.”
“The @DeptofWar is always ready, so ISIS foUS Republican Lawmakers Laud Trump Over Sokoto Airstrikesund out tonight — on Christmas. More to come… Grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation,” Hegseth wrote on X.
The strikes come weeks after Trump described violence against Christians in Nigeria as an “existential threat” amounting to “genocide,” a position that saw Nigeria returned to the list of “Countries of Particular Concern,” alongside threats of military action and subsequent visa restrictions.
However, Nigerian authorities have consistently rejected the religious framing of the violence, maintaining that people of different faiths are victims of terrorism and criminal attacks across the country.