Confusion has emerged over the reported death of senior Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commander Abu Bilal Minuki, after Nigerian authorities and international partners announced his elimination in a fresh joint operation despite earlier claims that he had already been killed in 2024.
The controversy followed confirmation by the Joint Task Force, North-East ‘Operation Haɗin-Kai’, that Abu-Bilal Al-Minuki was killed during a coordinated military offensive in Borno State carried out with support from United States forces.
The Nigerian military described the operation as a major counterterrorism breakthrough, stating that the mission successfully eliminated one of the most active terrorist figures within the global ISIS network. The announcement came after U.S. President Donald Trump disclosed that American and Nigerian forces jointly carried out a complex operation that targeted what he described as the terrorist group’s second-in-command globally.
Nigerian President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu also praised the operation as a significant success in Nigeria–U.S. security cooperation. In a statement signed by Director of Defence Information Major General Sama’ila Uba, the military said the precision strike was made possible through strengthened intelligence sharing and security collaboration between both countries.
According to the statement, Al-Minuki played a strategic role within ISIS and was responsible for providing guidance to affiliated groups outside Nigeria on media operations, economic warfare, and the development of weapons, explosives and drones. The military further disclosed that intelligence suggested that as recently as February 2026, Minuki may have been elevated to Head of the General Directorate of States, effectively making him the second most senior figure within the global ISIS structure.
General Uba said Minuki previously served as the Nigeria-based al-Furqan GDP Office Emir in 2023, where he supervised ISIS-linked activities across the Sahel and West Africa, including attacks targeting civilians and minority communities. He was also linked by intelligence reports to the 2018 Dapchi schoolgirls abduction and was said to have held a senior leadership role within Boko Haram before pledging allegiance to ISIS in 2015.
However, the latest announcement has reignited questions because Nigerian authorities had previously declared Minuki dead in 2024. Recall that in April 2024, the Defence Headquarters announced that Abu Bilal Minuki was among top terrorist commanders killed during military operations conducted between January and March of that year. Then Director of Defence Media Operations, Major-Gen. Edward Buba, had stated that Minuki was eliminated on February 21, 2024, during clearance operations and described him as a key insurgent figure operating around the Birnin-Gwari forest axis in Kaduna State and along the Abuja–Kaduna highway.
The reappearance of his name in the latest operation has now raised questions over intelligence accuracy and identity verification, with observers considering whether the earlier report involved mistaken identity, multiple aliases, or whether the same individual had been incorrectly declared dead.
Despite the uncertainty surrounding the conflicting claims, the military insisted that the operation represented a major step in ongoing efforts to dismantle terrorist networks operating across Nigeria, the Lake Chad Basin and the wider West African region.
