US President Donald Trump says a targeted operation in Nigeria—carried out by US forces working with Nigerian security personnel—killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, described as ISIS’s second-in-command globally. Born in Nigeria’s Borno State and sanctioned by the US in 2023, al-Minuki was reportedly a key regional leader for ISIS’s Lake Chad area, handling operational and financial direction. Trump said ISIS believed it could evade detection, but US intelligence tracking led to his elimination.
US President Donald Trump announced that Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, ISIS’s global second-in-command, was eliminated in an operation involving American and Nigerian forces. Trump said the mission was meticulously planned and complex, and claimed US sources tracked what al-Minuki was doing while he tried to hide in Africa. He added that the killing greatly diminishes ISIS’s global operations and thanked Nigeria for its partnership. The news comes amid earlier US-Nigeria tensions over alleged persecution of Christians and US airstrikes in northwestern Nigeria.
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Nigerian airlines kept operating on Thursday after averting a shutdown sparked by soaring jet fuel prices. The spike, intensified by the Middle East war, is hitting an industry across Africa’s biggest crude producer. Even with increased jet fuel output from Nigeria’s Dangote refinery, data reviewed by AFP suggests fuel costs remain stubbornly high—raising questions about how much room there is to lower prices.
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