US President Donald Trump threatens to send troops into Nigeria over alleged Christian killings, warning of “guns-a-blazing” response.
WEST PALM BEACH: President Donald Trump has threatened to deploy United States military forces into Nigeria if the African nation fails to stop what he describes as killings of Christians by Islamist groups.
The Republican leader issued his explosive warning through a post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday.
Trump declared he has instructed the Pentagon to develop potential attack plans against Nigeria.
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. 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 stated.
He specifically warned Nigerian authorities that they “BETTER MOVE FAST” to address the situation.
Trump previously claimed without evidence on Friday that “thousands of Christians are being killed (and) Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter.”
He also announced Nigeria’s designation as a “Country of Particular Concern” over what he called an “existential threat” to Christians.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu responded directly to Trump’s accusations on social media platform X.
“The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality,” Tinubu posted on Saturday.
He emphasised that “religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so.”
Nigeria faces multiple security crises that experts say have claimed both Christian and Muslim lives indiscriminately.
The country’s northeastern region remains the epicenter of a Boko Haram jihadist insurgency ongoing since 2009.
Central Nigeria experiences frequent clashes between predominantly Muslim herders and mostly Christian farmers over land resources.
Conservative American politicians have repeatedly accused Nigeria of permitting Christian persecution.
US Congressman Chris Smith advocated for Nigeria’s CPC designation in March this year.
Senator Ted Cruz and House Republican Riley Moore similarly accused Nigeria in early October of ignoring Christian killings.
Some US officials describe the situation facing Nigerian Christians as “genocide,” though Abuja strongly denies this characterization.
Nigeria maintains an almost equal population split between its Muslim-majority north and predominantly Christian south.
The United Nations reports the Boko Haram conflict has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced over two million since 2009. – AFP
