Questions arise after military declared ISWAP commander dead in 2024 before fresh announcement by Trump, Tinubu

Confusion has emerged over the reported killing of a senior Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commander, Abu Bilal Minuki, also known as Abubakar Mainok, following fresh claims by Nigerian and United States authorities that he was eliminated in a recent joint military operation.

The controversy stems from the fact that Nigerian military authorities had earlier announced in 2024 that the same commander had already been killed during counterterrorism operations in the North-East.

The latest development has raised concerns over the accuracy of battlefield intelligence and official counterterrorism records involving one of the most wanted IS-affiliated commanders operating within the Lake Chad Basin.

Checks showed that in April 2024, the Defence Headquarters listed Abu Bilal Minuki among several terrorist commanders allegedly neutralised during military offensives carried out between January and March of that year.

The announcement was made by the then Director of Defence Media Operations, Major General Edward Buba, during a briefing in Abuja.

At the time, Buba identified Minuki — also known as Abubakar Mainok — as the “Head of IS-Al Furqan Province (ISGS and ISWAP)” and claimed he was killed on February 21, 2024, during clearance operations.

According to the military, the insurgent commander operated around the Birnin Gwari forest axis in Kaduna State and along the Abuja-Kaduna highway.

The Defence Headquarters had also announced that several other commanders and dozens of fighters were eliminated during the same period.

Buba stated then that troops were aggressively targeting insurgents across multiple theatres of operation, adding that over 2,300 terrorists had been killed while more than 1,200 kidnapped victims were rescued during the operations under review.

However, in a dramatic twist, President Bola Tinubu and United States President Donald Trump on Friday separately announced another successful operation said to have resulted in the killing of Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki.

In a statement personally signed by Tinubu, the President described the mission as a major breakthrough in Nigeria–US counterterrorism cooperation.

He said Nigerian troops, working alongside United States forces, carried out a “daring joint operation” in the Lake Chad Basin which led to the elimination of the IS commander and several of his lieutenants.

“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 stated.

The President commended the professionalism of the troops involved and praised the growing security partnership between Nigeria and the United States.

President Trump also confirmed the operation through a post on Truth Social, where he described Minuki as “the most active terrorist in the world.”

Trump claimed the operation was carried out under his directive and involved American and Nigerian forces working together based on intelligence tracking the commander’s movements across Africa.

He further described the slain militant as the “second in command of ISIS globally,” adding that his death would significantly weaken the group’s international operations.

The conflicting claims surrounding Minuki’s reported deaths in both 2024 and 2026 have now triggered questions over whether the military may have previously misidentified him, whether another commander was mistaken for him, or whether he survived the earlier operation and resurfaced under a different identity.

The development has also reignited debates over the reliability of official casualty announcements in Nigeria’s long-running war against insurgency.

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