Trump says US forces, Nigeria military killed ISIS leader

Audrey Wan, Bloomberg News on May 16, 2026

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U.S. and Nigerian forces killed an ISIS leader who was hiding in Africa, President Donald Trump said, adding that his death has “greatly diminished” the group’s global operations.

Trump said Abu-Bilal al-Minuki was second in command of ISIS globally and referred to him as the “most active terrorist in the world,” according to a post on Truth Social.

“He will no longer terrorize the people of Africa, or help plan operations to target Americans,” Trump said, thanking the Nigerian government for its partnership on the military operation.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu confirmed the killing, calling it an “example of effective collaboration in the fight against terrorism” in the West African nation that has been battling Islamic insurgency in its northern region for nearly two decades.

“Early assessments confirm the elimination of the wanted IS senior leader, Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki, also known as Abu-Mainok, along with several of his lieutenants, during a strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin,” Tinubu said.

In December, the U.S. launched a military strike in Nigeria against Islamic State targets in a security and intelligence collaboration with the African nation’s government. It subsequently sent in specialist military trainers to Africa’s most populous nation as violence escalated.

Nigeria, home to 230 million people — roughly split between Muslims and Christians — has a long history of ethnic violence driven by a struggle over access to resources such as land and water, even as terrorism by the likes of jihadist groups Boko Haram and the Islamic State seek to impose an extremist form of Islam in the North of the country.

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(With assistance from Anthony Osae-Brown.)