WTF? We've bombed Nigeria?

[Igel]

18. If you assume past future, sure.

That is, there can be no change.

Then there's what the US military says and various indigenous folk add:

Sokoto state sits near international corridors used by extremist networks linked to the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP).
Its proximity to Niger and other parts of the Sahel makes it a transit and operational hub for militants spreading outward from the Lake Chad and Sahel regions." The strike signals that extremist threats in Nigeria are not confined to the northeast they can expand into northwest regions unless checked early.

Niger and Mali have had real problems with ISIS and affine groups and Sokoto is a reasonable transit point for interaction between them and militants in the NE with links to groups in Chad.

Mali's capital was (still is?) under siege. You know, a blockade. Like Gaza was. Hear much about that? No, we fret over its regrouping in Syria because it makes Trump look bad. (But, you know, it's not like it wasn't there between 2020 and 2025.)

ISIS by whatever local name it's using in Mali or Chad or Burkina Faso is much more important in African than it is in the Middle East at present. There's a new 300k or so refugees from an offensive in Mozambique. Not that it makes much news here. Epstein!

And, yes, ISIS will take on (where "take on" = "blow up or massacre&quot as it has in the ME, both Xian groups as well as insufficiently observant Muslim groups and non-allies. Its followers have pushed to institutionalize Sharia in many state in the north and want to extend their influence. And that means suppressing or cowing Muslims that aren't 'right with Allah' as well as making sure lesser religions mind their place and lose authority, dignity, and rights. That's how religious oppression works (and to a large extent, when politics becomes authoritarian it assumes the same kind of oppressive trappings). Will to Power and all that kind of Nietzschian bs.