President Donald Trump has threatened military action against Nigeria if the government continues to allow terrorists to kill Christians.
The African country is being roiled by internal violence, including a jihadist insurgency that Boko Haram has been spearheading in the northeast since 2009.
Amid the various forms of bloodletting around the country – including ethnic rivalry and banditry – the Islamist militants have been slaughtering Christians as well as Muslims they regard as ‘apostates’ for failing to comport with their brand of Islam.
There has also been a separate onslaught by Fulani Muslim tribesmen against mainly Christian farming communities, a protracted crisis linked to a tangle of issues like religion, ethnicity and a scramble over the dwindling supply of arable land.
Trump has already designated Nigeria a ‘country of particular concern’ and earned a glowing response from Nicki Minaj for his remarks on X.
But he took his condemnation of the situation in the country even further on Saturday, warning that the United States may strike Nigeria if the horrendous murders continue.
‘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,’ he wrote on X.
‘I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action,’ the president declared, noting that any attack would be ‘fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians.’
President Donald Trump warned on Saturday that the United States would take military action in Nigeria if the killing of Christians continues
‘WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!’
But the Nigerian state and the Christian Association of Nigeria have denied claims that a ‘Christian genocide’ is unfolding in the country, an allegation that has been gathering steam on the American right and was also leveled by liberal commentator Bill Maher on a recent episode of his political talk-show Real Time with Bill Maher.
Maher, a fervent supporter of Israel, slammed what he felt was the media’s hypocrisy in focusing on Gaza while devoting scant attention to Nigeria.
By designating Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern’ (CPC) Trump declared that the United States views the country as being engaged in ‘particularly severe violations of religious freedom,’ under the International Religious Freedom Act of the Clinton era.
While announcing the move, Trump said that ‘Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria’ and revealed he was also ‘asking Congressman Riley Moore, together with Chairman Tom Cole and the House Appropriations Committee, to immediately look into this matter, and report back to me.’
He added: ‘The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!’
