President Trump threatened to send the U.S. military to Nigeria and withhold foreign aid to the country if the government “continues to allow the killing of Christians.”
He said aid will be stopped and the military “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.”
“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action,” he wrote on Truth Social over the weekend. “If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!”
A spokesperson for Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said Sunday that the African nation would accept assistance from the U.S. military but Mr. Trump should regard Nigeria as a “sovereign” country.
“We welcome U.S. assistance as long as it recognizes our territorial integrity,” spokesman Daniel Bwala told Reuters. “I am sure by the time these two leaders meet and sit, there would be better outcomes in our joint resolve to fight terrorism.”
The presidential spokesman said the Islamic jihadis had killed people of all faiths and were not singling out Christians in their attacks.
He said Nigeria’s leaders understand not to take Mr. Trump literally and to instead see the American president’s “style of going forceful in order to force a sit-down and have a conversation.”
The spokesman said he knows Mr. Trump’s ultimate goal is to address insecurity, and he hopes the two leaders can meet soon to discuss strategies.
On Friday, Mr. Trump said in a post that he was labeling Nigeria “a country of particular concern.”
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria,” Mr. Trump said in a social media post. “Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN.’”
He said he would ask several lawmakers to look into the issue and report back to him. The designation also enables the U.S. to impose sanctions on countries violating religious freedom.
“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,” Mr. Trump said.
The religious affiliations of the 220 million people who live in Nigeria are nearly split, with the Muslim population concentrated in the north and the Christian population in the south.
The Nigerian Foreign Affairs Ministry said Saturday in response to Mr. Trump’s designation that the country remains “committed in our resolve to tackle the violent extremism.”
“Like America, Nigeria has no option but to celebrate the diversity that is our greatest strength. Nigeria is a God-fearing country where we respect faith, tolerance, diversity and inclusion, in concurrence with the rules-based international order,” the ministry wrote.
Mr. Trump designated Nigeria a country of particular concern during his first term, but the Biden administration reversed that label.
Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, proposed placing sanctions on Nigerian leaders who fail to protect the country’s Christians.
“Nigerian Christians are being targeted and executed for their faith by Islamist terrorist groups and are being forced to submit to Shariah law and blasphemy laws across Nigeria,” Mr. Cruz said in September. “It is long past time to impose real costs on the Nigerian officials who facilitate these activities, and my Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act uses new and existing tools to do exactly that.”
An August report from Nigerian human rights group Intersociety said more than 7,000 Christians had been killed this year in attacks at the hands of jihadi groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
An organization that tracks political violence worldwide, known as ACLED — Armed Conflict Location and Event Data — said most of the jihadis’ victims during their yearslong insurgency are Muslim.
Boko Haram has led a 15-year campaign in northern Nigeria to overthrow governing authorities and enforce Shariah law.
The terrorist group’s attacks involve suicide bombings, raids on military bases and massacring residents who are loyal to its equally violent rival faction, ISWAP. The ongoing conflict has left thousands dead and millions more homeless.
This spring, the governor of Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state warned that Boko Haram was making a comeback.
Nigerian officials said Boko Haram killed 63 people, mostly civilians, in a September ambush on a military base in Dar al-Jamal.
Meanwhile, ISWAP has been linked to several attacks on government targets, including the Borno state’s largest military camp in Marte.
The U.S. has designated Boko Haram and ISWAP as foreign terrorist organizations.
• Matt Delaney can be reached at mdelaney@washingtontimes.com.
• Mallory Wilson can be reached at mwilson@washingtontimes.com.
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