In the past 48 hours, the United States military carried out large-scale airstrikes against Islamic State (ISIS) targets across Syria, the most recent wave in an ongoing campaign that has persisted for more than a decade after ISIS once held large territories in Iraq and Syria. These strikes, conducted under what U.S. officials call Operation Hawkeye Strike, were launched in response to a deadly ambush last December that claimed the lives of two American service members and a civilian interpreter. The U.S. military says the latest 35 hits in Syria were aimed at degrading ISIS’s ability to operate and launch future attacks.

From the Middle East to West Africa: Extremism’s Global Threads

ISIS once lost much of its territorial grip in the Middle East, but it never fully disappeared. Instead, it splintered into smaller cells that continue to operate and adapt, striking both military forces and civilians. Its ideology now resonates across continents. In Nigeria and the Lake Chad region, a local ISIS-aligned group, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), remains a powerful and violent presence.

This raises a critical question: how best can this kind of terrorism be addressed? Data has shown that quelling violence with violence doesn’t really do enough justice. For instance, how effective was the 25th December 2025 strike in Sokoto? There are reports that it has encouraged terrorists’ migration, posing threats to safer regions, like the resultant attack that led to the death of four Old Oyo National Park Rangers on the 7th of January 2026. It speaks volumes to note that Sokoto and Oyo share borders. Killing killers can only do so much, but how about an intellectual war of deprivation? Depriving terrorists of essential human and material resources, blocking ammunition supply, cutting them off from internet supply, stifling funding and tryingto cut off terrorism bankrollers.

Although the contexts are different, many of the same forces that fuel extremism in Syria, marginalisation, weak governance, economic despair, and cycles of retaliation also exist in Nigeria’s northeastern states. There, communities have endured violence from ISWAP and Boko Haram for over a decade, driving millions from their homes and deepening distrust in state institutions.

What makes Syria and Nigeria connected isn’t just ideology; it’s the human consequences:

• Lives shattered: Families lose loved ones not just to combat but to suicide bombings, kidnappings, and forced recruitment, social injustice and whatnot.
• Communities fractured: Fear erodes trust between neighbours; schools and markets become unsafe.
• Hope strained: Generations grow up knowing little beyond violence and hardship.

ISIS in Syria may be fighting foreign forces, but in Nigeria, the struggle is deeply local, until the recent US intervention.

What the Latest Strikes Mean for Peace, Justice and Social Change

The U.S. strikes in Syria illustrate a sobering reality: even after concerted global efforts, violent extremism is resilient. It adapts, mutates and finds fertile ground where people feel unheard and unprotected. For Nigeria and for movements committed to peace and social justice, this has clear resonance:

1. Military action alone won’t end extremism.
Airstrikes can disrupt networks and eliminate immediate threats, but they don’t fix the conditions that allow these groups to grow. Lasting peace requires addressing inequality, injustice, and the structural exclusion that push young people toward violent causes.

2. Local voices matter.
In Syria and Nigeria alike, peace is more likely sustained when communities drive solutions, not just outside powers. Empowering local leaders, civil society groups, women, and youth can build resilience that outlives international interventions.

3. Global struggle, local realities.
The violence in Syria may seem geographically remote, but the forces behind it, economic despair, political marginalisation, and fractured identities, are the same forces that extremists exploit elsewhere. Globally, we must connect these dots and work toward structural change that protects human dignity.

Looking Ahead

As the international community focuses attention on Syria, let Nigeria’s experience remind us that true peace demands both protection from violence and investment in human dignity and opportunity. This means strengthening education, justice systems, economic inclusion, and local governance so that no young person ever feels that violence is their only path.

Only then can the cycles that fuel extremism be broken, not just in Syria or Nigeria but everywhere people dare to hope for a peaceful future.