Trump had previously accused the Nigerian government of failing to stop the killing of Christians, an important theme for his evangelical base. Two US officials told the New York Times that the airstrikes were a one-off aimed at allowing Trump to claim he was going after a group that had killed Christians.

Murtala Abdullahi, a Nigerian security consultant, also said Lakurawa was probably a symbolic target. “How do you establish a link that [a] bandit group has been hitting the Christian community?” he asked. “That’s difficult. But if you hit a jihadist group then you don’t need to establish a link.”