- Trump warns of a “gun attack” to “completely eliminate” militants.
- He says the goal is to attack “terrorists who commit horrible atrocities.”
- Instructs the “War Department” to prepare for possible action.
US President Donald Trump said Saturday that he has asked the Defense Department to prepare for possible military action in Nigeria if the Nigerian government “continues to allow the murder of Christians.”
The US government will also immediately suspend all aid and assistance to Nigeria, Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
Trump said the United States “could very well enter that now-disgraced country, ‘with guns,’ to completely eliminate the…terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
“I hereby instruct our War Department to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be quick, cruel and gentle, just as terrorist thugs attack our beloved Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!” he also wrote in the publication.
Trump’s steamy statement comes hours after the Nigerian government vowed to continue fighting violent extremism and said it hoped Washington would remain a close ally after Trump added the West African nation to a US watch list for what he said were threats to Christianity.
“The Federal Government of Nigeria will continue to stand up for all citizens, regardless of race, creed or religion. Like the United States, Nigeria has no choice but to celebrate diversity, which is our greatest strength,” its Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
“Nigeria is a God-fearing country where we respect faith, tolerance, diversity and inclusion, in accordance with the rules-based international order,” the ministry added.
On Friday, Trump said he was putting Nigeria, the top oil producer and Africa’s most populous country, on a list of “Countries of Particular Concern” that the United States says have committed religious freedom violations, which also includes China, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Pakistan.
The Republican US president had called the country a concern during his first term in the White House, but his Democratic successor Joe Biden removed him from the US State Department’s list in 2021.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being murdered. Radicals are responsible for this mass slaughter,” he wrote in a social media post on Friday without offering any details.
Nigeria, a nation of more than 200 ethnic groups practicing Christianity, Islam and traditional religions, has a long history of peaceful coexistence with mosques and churches dotting its cities.
But it also has a long history of violence between groups, with religious differences sometimes overlapping with other fault lines, such as ethnic divisions or conflicts over scarce land and water resources.
For 15 years, the extremist armed group Boko Haram has also terrorized northeastern Nigeria, an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people, mostly Muslims.
Trump also asked the US House Appropriations Committee to review the issue and report back to him. A US congressional subcommittee held a hearing on the killings of Christians in Nigeria earlier this year.
Appropriations Committee Chairman U.S. Rep. Tom Cole, in an X post on Friday, said the designation “sends a strong message: The United States will not ignore Christian persecution.”
