Trump Threatens Intervention in Nigeria if Government Fails to Protect Christians

Trump has threatened to cut off aid and launch an intervention in Nigeria to ‘completely eliminate Islamic terrorists’ if the country’s government ‘fails to protect Christians.’

The US President made this statement on his social media, Truth Social.

“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, “guns-a-blazing,” to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump wrote.

He added that he had instructed the Department of Defense to prepare for ‘possible action.’
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth shared Trump’s post on social media, replying: ‘Yes, sir.’

“The Department of War is preparing to act. Either the Nigerian government protects Christians, or we will eliminate the Islamic terrorists committing these horrific crimes,” Hegseth said.

In March, US Congressman Chris Smith called on the State Department to designate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” due to what he described as an “existential threat” to the African nation’s Christian population.

And in early October, US Senator Ted Cruz and Republican Representative Riley Moore accused the Nigerian government of turning a blind eye to the “mass killing” of Christians.

Nigeria rejects US claims of a ‘Christian genocide’

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu responded to Trump’s statement on social media, saying that Nigeria is not a religiously intolerant state.

“Religious freedom and tolerance have always been a core principle of our collective identity – and they always will be,” he added.

Nigeria is almost evenly divided between a Muslim-majority north and a predominantly Christian south. Its northeastern region lies at the epicenter of the Boko Haram jihadist insurgency, which the government has been battling for more than 20 years. According to the United Nations, since 2009, jihadists have killed more than 40,000 people, and over two million have been displaced.

Boko Haram – a name in the Hausa language meaning “Western education is a sin” – views the federal government, the governments of the northern states, and both the political and religious elites as morally corrupt. Boko Haram rejects the West and the secular state, seeking instead the universal imposition of “pure” Sharia law.

Typical Boko Haram targets include churches, individual Christians, people engaged in “non-Islamic” activities, Muslim critics, village elders, schools, police stations, government buildings, newspapers, and banks.

There is also some tension in central Nigeria, where herders – most of whom are Muslim – have repeatedly clashed with farmers, the majority of whom are Christian. Although the conflict is often portrayed as religious, it usually stems from competition over access to land.