“I hereby instruct the War Department to prepare for a possible deployment,” added the US President. “If we attack, it will be quick, nasty and sweet – just like the terrorist criminals attack our honored Christians.” Trump concluded his post with the words: “Warning: The Nigerian government had better act quickly!”
Nigeria is rocked by numerous conflicts between different ethnic and population groups, to which Christians and Muslims alike fall victim. The country is divided into a predominantly Muslim north and a largely Christian south.
Without citing any evidence, Trump had already claimed in his online service on Friday that Christians were facing an “existential threat” in Nigeria. “Thousands of Christians” are being killed in the country and “radical Islamists” are “responsible for this mass slaughter.”
Similar allegations had previously been made by Republican politicians. In early October, Senator Ted Cruz and Representative Riley Moore accused the Nigerian government of turning a blind eye to the “mass murder” of Christians.
Some U.S. officials claimed that Christians in Nigeria were facing “genocide.” The Nigerian government denies this accusation. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu wrote on Saturday in response to Trump’s post the previous day on the online service X: “The characterization of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality.” Religious freedom and tolerance are “a core part of our collective identity and will always remain so.”
