President Bola Tinubu has confirmed the elimination of a senior Islamic State commander, Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki, also known as Abu-Mainok, in a joint overnight operation conducted by Nigerian and United States forces in the Lake Chad Basin. The announcement came on Saturday, with both leaders independently confirming the outcome of what has been described as a significant and carefully coordinated counterterrorism strike.

In a statement he personally signed, President Tinubu described the operation as a landmark demonstration of effective bilateral collaboration in the fight against terrorism.

He said Nigerian Armed Forces, working closely with their American counterparts, conducted a daring joint operation that dealt a heavy blow to the Islamic State’s operational structure in the region. Early assessments confirmed the elimination of Al-Manuki, along with several of his lieutenants, during a precision strike on his compound in the Lake Chad Basin.

United States President Donald Trump had announced the development on his Truth Social platform late on Friday, describing the mission as a meticulously planned and complex operation executed by American forces in partnership with the Nigerian military. Trump identified Al-Manuki as the Islamic State’s second-in-command globally and said he had been eliminated from the battlefield. The US president thanked the Nigerian government for its partnership and cooperation in the operation, while US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth also expressed gratitude for Nigeria’s support in making the strike possible.

The killing of Al-Manuki represents the latest and most consequential outcome of deepening security ties between Abuja and Washington. The two countries formalised a joint counterterrorism working group in January 2026, and Nigeria’s National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu visited the United States earlier this month for high-level engagements with US Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and other senior officials to review the state of bilateral security cooperation. Those meetings focused on intelligence sharing, defence capacity building, and strategies to address the complex threats posed by Islamic State-linked factions operating across the Lake Chad Basin and the wider Sahel region.

The Nigeria-US counterterrorism partnership gained momentum following the Christmas Day airstrikes of December 2025, when US forces, acting on Nigerian intelligence and with the explicit approval of President Tinubu, targeted ISIS and Lakurawa militant camps in Sokoto State in northwestern Nigeria.

That operation signalled a decisive shift in the two countries’ security relationship, transforming what had been a period of diplomatic tension into a structured and operational alliance against shared terrorist threats.

Tinubu, in his statement, expressed appreciation for the collaboration and signalled that more operations were to come. He extended gratitude to President Trump for his leadership and declared his expectation of further decisive strikes against all terrorist enclaves across the country.