US President Donald Trump has repeated his threat of a military operation in Nigeria over “killings of Christians,” and that it could be ground or air attacks.
As claims of Christian “persecution” in Africa’s most populous country have found traction online among the US and European right, experts say Nigeria’s myriad conflicts kill both Christians and Muslims without distinction.
Trump’s remarks came after the Nigerian presidency suggested a meeting between the two leaders to resolve the issue.
Photo: AFP
Asked by an Agence France-Presse reporter aboard Air Force One if he was considering US troops on the ground in Nigeria or airstrikes, Trump replied: “Could be, I mean, a lot of things — I envisage a lot of things.”
“They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers. We’re not going to allow that to happen,” he said on Sunday.
Nigeria’s government denies that Christians are especially targeted.
In an explosive post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, Trump said that he asked the Pentagon to map out a possible plan of attack in Nigeria, one day after warning that Christianity was “facing an existential threat” in the west African nation.
In his post, Trump said that if Nigeria does not stem the killings, the United States would attack and “it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians.”
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s spokesman Daniel Bwala told AFP on Sunday that “Nigeria is US’s partner in the global fight against terrorism. When leaders meet there would be better outcomes.”
“Nigeria welcomes US support to fight terrorism as long as it respects our territorial integrity,” he said.
“We know that Donald Trump has his own style of communication,” he said, suggesting the post was a way to “force a sit-down between the two leaders so they can iron out a common front to fight their insecurity.”
Earlier, Bwala had suggested in a post on X that the two leaders could meet soon.
“As for the differences as to whether terrorists in Nigeria target only Christians or in fact all faiths and no faiths, the differences if they exist, would be discussed and resolved by the two leaders when they meet in the coming days, either in State House or White House,” he said.
Bwala, who was speaking on the phone from Washington, declined to disclose details of any potential meeting.
Trump posted on Friday, without evidence, that “thousands of Christians are being killed [and] Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter.”
Nigeria faces a jihadist conflict in its northeast, “bandit” gangs in the northwest and deadly farmer-herder conflicts in its central states.
“Christians are being killed, we can’t deny the fact that Muslims are [also] being killed,” said Danjuma Dickson Auta, 56, a Christian and community leader in Plateau state.
The central state has for years suffered deadly clashes between mostly Christian farmers and Muslim herders over dwindling land, as well as attacks from armed criminals.
Speaking from Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state — the epicenter of Islamist militancy in Nigeria — Abubakar Gamandi, a Muslim who heads a fishermen’s union, told AFP that “even those who sold this narrative of Christian genocide know it is not true.”
CALL FOR SUPPORT: President William Lai called on lawmakers across party lines to ensure the livelihood of Taiwanese and that national security is protected President William Lai (賴清德) yesterday called for bipartisan support for Taiwan’s investment in self-defense capabilities at the christening and launch of two coast guard vessels at CSBC Corp, Taiwan’s (台灣國際造船) shipyard in Kaohsiung. The Taipei (台北) is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels, and the Siraya (西拉雅) is the Coast Guard Administration’s (CGA) first-ever ocean patrol vessel, the government said. The Taipei is the fourth and final ship of the Chiayi-class offshore patrol vessels with a displacement of about 4,000 tonnes, Lai said. This ship class was ordered as a result of former president Tsai Ing-wen’s (蔡英文) 2018
UKRAINE, NVIDIA: The US leader said the subject of Russia’s war had come up ‘very strongly,’ while Jenson Huang was hoping that the conversation was good Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and US President Donald Trump had differing takes following their meeting in Busan, South Korea, yesterday. Xi said that the two sides should complete follow-up work as soon as possible to deliver tangible results that would provide “peace of mind” to China, the US and the rest of the world, while Trump hailed the “great success” of the talks. The two discussed trade, including a deal to reduce tariffs slapped on China for its role in the fentanyl trade, as well as cooperation in ending the war in Ukraine, among other issues, but they did not mention
HOTEL HIRING: An official said that hoteliers could begin hiring migrant workers next year, but must adhere to a rule requiring a NT$2,000 salary hike for Taiwanese The government is to allow the hospitality industry to recruit mid-level migrant workers for housekeeping and three other lines of work after the Executive Yuan yesterday approved a proposal by the Ministry of Labor. A shortage of workers at hotels and accommodation facilities was discussed at a meeting of the legislature’s Transportation Committee. A 2023 survey conducted by the Tourism Administration found that Taiwan’s lodging industry was short of about 6,600 housekeeping and cleaning workers, the agency said in a report to the committee. The shortage of workers in the industry is being studied, the report said. Hotel and Lodging Division Deputy Director Cheng
‘SECRETS’: While saying China would not attack during his presidency, Donald Trump declined to say how Washington would respond if Beijing were to take military action US President Donald Trump said that China would not take military action against Taiwan while he is president, as the Chinese leaders “know the consequences.” Trump made the statement during an interview on CBS’ 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday, a few days after his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) in South Korea. “He [Xi] has openly said, and his people have openly said at meetings, ‘we would never do anything while President Trump is president,’ because they know the consequences,” Trump said in the interview. However, he repeatedly declined to say exactly how Washington would respond in
RSS