‘It Won’t Be a One-Time Strike’: Trump Threatens More U.S. Action in Nigeria
The President of the United States, Mr. Donald Trump, has warned that Washington could carry out further air strikes in Nigeria if what he described as “attacks on Christians” continue.
Mr. Trump said there could be additional U.S. military strikes if Christians are killed in Nigeria, despite repeated denials by the Federal Government that Christians are subjected to systematic persecution. Reuters reported that the U.S. President made the remarks in an interview with The New York Times.
He was responding to a question about a U.S. military strike carried out on Christmas Day in Nigeria. At the time, the U.S. military said it had conducted the operation against Islamic State militants in north-west Nigeria at the request of the Nigerian government.
Nigerian authorities subsequently described the action as a “joint operation” aimed at “terrorists” and stressed that it had “nothing to do with a particular religion”.
“I’d love to make it a one-time strike … But if they continue to kill Christians, it will be a many-time strike,” Mr. Trump was quoted as saying.
When asked about the assessment of his own Africa adviser, who had reportedly said that Islamic State and Boko Haram militants were killing more Muslims than Christians, Mr. Trump responded: “I think that Muslims are being killed also in Nigeria. But it’s mostly Christians.”
In late October, Mr. Trump began warning that Christianity faces what he called an “existential threat” in Nigeria, and threatened military intervention over what he said was the country’s failure to halt violence against Christian communities.
Nigeria has long grappled with serious security challenges, including insurgency, banditry, and kidnappings, particularly in the northern regions. However, the Federal Government has consistently rejected claims of targeted or systematic persecution of Christians.
The Federal Government has maintained that militant groups have killed many Muslims as well as Christians, insisting that the violence is not religiously motivated but driven by terrorism and criminality.
