Abou Bilal al-Minuki, born in 1982, played an essential role in the Daesh branch in West Africa.
Nigeria and the United States announced the death of a leader of the Islamic State group in a joint operation of their armies, the second in five months launched in this West African country plagued by jihadist violence.
This operation, announced by Donald Trump, targeted this time Abou Bilal al-Minuki, whom he presented as the number two of ISIS in the world. “The brave American forces and the Nigerian armed forces carried out a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate the world’s most active terrorist from the battlefield,” declared the American president on his Truth Social network from Friday night to Saturday.
“He will no longer terrorize the African population or contribute to planning operations targeting Americans. With his elimination, the operational capabilities of ISIS around the world are significantly reduced,” he added.
“Our determined Nigerian armed forces, working closely with the US armed forces, carried out a bold joint operation that dealt a severe blow to the ranks of the Islamic State,” then confirmed Nigerian President Bola Tinubu in a statement.
“One of the most active terrorists in the world”
According to the Nigerian army, it was a “precision air-ground operation, meticulously planned and extremely complex,” which took place on Saturday between midnight and 4 a.m. The jihadist leader died “with several of his lieutenants, in a strike against his complex in the Lake Chad basin,” the Nigerian president said.
According to the Nigerian defense forces, Abou Bilal al-Minuki was a “high-ranking official of the Islamic State and one of the most active terrorists in the world.” He is described as “an operational and strategic figure who provided advice to Islamic State entities outside Nigeria on issues related to media operations, economic warfare, as well as weapon development and manufacturing.”
They also specify that “his death eliminates an essential link through which the Islamic State coordinated and directed its operations in different regions of the world.”
Chief of the Daesh branch in West Africa
Born in 1982 in Borno province, Nigeria, al-Minuki became one of the main figures of the Islamic State in West Africa (EIAO) after the death, in 2018, of the former group leader in the region, Mamman Nur, according to specialists from the Counter Extremism Project NGO, cited by ABC News.
Al-Minuki was based in the Sahel region and reportedly fought in Libya when ISIS was active in that North African country over a decade ago. He is also considered one of the main architects of the formation of the Islamic State in West Africa after its split from Boko Haram in 2016.
Abou Bilal al-Minuki was placed under US sanctions in 2023 for his ties to the Islamic State group.
“If the elimination of Abou Bilal al-Minuki is confirmed, it would be a major blow for ISIS West Africa, and for the Sahelian subsidiary. He is the man of the connection and relations between the two,” commented France 24 journalist and jihadist movements specialist Wassim Nasr.
Deadly attacks and mass abductions
The spokesperson for the Nigerian army, Sani Uba, stated that the operation followed intelligence indicating that al-Minuki and his international terrorist cell had concealed a fortified enclave in a remote village in Metele, located in the Lake Chad basin, in the northeast of Borno state, the epicenter of an armed insurgency that has lasted for 17 years.
This is the second time in five months that the American president has launched an intervention of his army in Nigeria, where he denounces persecutions allegedly suffered by Christians.
The resurgence of deadly attacks and mass abductions in recent months is drawing the attention of the United States. President Donald Trump asserts that Christians in Nigeria are being “persecuted” and victims of a “genocide” perpetrated by “terrorists,” a claim that Abuja and most experts firmly deny, with violence affecting both Christians and Muslims indiscriminately.
The US military, in coordination with Nigerian authorities, conducted strikes in Sokoto state on Christmas day targeting, according to Washington, ISIS jihadists.
