US Resumes Surveillance of Sambisa Forest After Air Strikes in Sokoto

The United States has resumed intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) operations over Nigeria’s north-east region, targeting militants in the Sambisa forest, following Thursday night’s air strikes on ISIS fighters in Sokoto State.

Brant Philip, a Sahel-focused terrorism tracker, disclosed the development on Saturday, sharing flight-tracking data showing a US aircraft flying over Borno State.

According to the data, the aircraft involved was a Gulfstream V, a long-range business jet often modified for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions.

“The United States resumed ISR operations today on ISWAP in the Sambisa forest, Borno State in northeast Nigeria, after a pause of one day following the strikes in Sokoto State,” Philip wrote on X (formerly Twitter).

Philip explained that yesterday operation focused on the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), the ISIS affiliate operating mainly in Nigeria’s north-east and the Lake Chad basin.

Flight-tracking information reviewed by multiple open-source analysts indicated that the US began its ongoing ISR missions in Nigeria on November 24, taking off from Ghana, which serves as a logistics hub for the American military network in West Africa.

The same aircraft, linked to Tenax Aerospace, a US special mission aircraft provider known to work closely with the American military, has reportedly flown over Nigeria almost daily since the start of the mission.

Sources familiar with the operation said the surveillance flights serve multiple purposes, including tracking an American pilot kidnapped in neighbouring Niger Republic, and gathering intelligence on militant groups in Nigeria.

The renewed US engagement came just weeks after National Security Adviser (NSA), Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, met with US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth in Washington amid growing tension over President Donald Trump’s threats of military intervention in Nigeria.

After that meeting, Hegseth said the US Department of Defence would work “aggressively” with Nigeria to end what he described as the “persecution of Christians by jihadist terrorists.”

Thursday night’s air strikes in North-West Nigeria, reportedly targeting ISIS-linked militants, marked what Trump earlier referred to as the “first fulfillment” of that promise.

“More strikes would follow,” the US President warned in his message on Thursday night.