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The Presidency has confirmed the killing of senior Islamic State West Africa Province commander, Abu-Bilal Al-Manuki, during a joint Nigeria-United States military operation, while clarifying that reports claiming he had already been killed in 2024 were based on mistaken identity. 
According to presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga, the confusion arose because Al-Manuki’s name had previously appeared among lists of suspected ISWAP and Boko Haram commanders reportedly neutralised during military operations around the Birnin Gwari forest axis in Kaduna State in 2024. However, intelligence officials later discovered that the earlier report was inaccurate and that Birnin Gwari was never part of Al-Manuki’s operational territory. 
The Presidency stated that the latest operation was based on months of intelligence gathering, surveillance, communications monitoring, and human intelligence efforts that reportedly began in December 2025. Officials disclosed that Nigerian and American security agencies initially attempted to capture the insurgent leader alive before eventually carrying out the final strike after prolonged tracking across multiple locations including Abuja and Maiduguri. 
President Bola Tinubu and former US President Donald Trump both confirmed the operation earlier on Friday. Trump described Al-Manuki as the “second in command of ISIS globally” and “the most active terrorist in the world,” while Tinubu praised the joint mission as a major success in the fight against terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin. 
The Defence Headquarters also defended the latest announcement, explaining that insurgent groups frequently use multiple aliases and similar identities, which can sometimes create confusion during counterterrorism operations. Authorities insisted that unlike the disputed 2024 report, the latest operation involved “multi-source intelligence confirmation” and rigorous target validation, stressing that security agencies are now “100 per cent certain” about Al-Manuki’s death. 
