Donald Trump has warned the US military “could be” deployed to Nigeria or carry out air strikes to stop what he called the killing of large numbers of Christians.
Posting on Truth Social last week, the US president claimed radical Islamists are committing “mass slaughter” and Christianity is “facing an existential threat” in the West African nation.
On Sunday, Mr Trump was asked whether he envisioned troops on the ground or air strikes in Nigeria.
“Could be. I mean, other things. I envisage a lot of things. They’re killing record numbers of Christians in Nigeria…
“They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers. We’re not going to allow that to happen,” he told reporters during a flight on Air Force One.
Nigeria has responded to threats of US military action by suggesting it would welcome help tackling Islamist insurgents, but insisted on Sunday that America must respect its sovereignty.
“We welcome US assistance as long as it recognises our territorial integrity,” Daniel Bwala, an adviser to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, told Reuters.
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But Mr Bwala also sought to play down tensions between the two nations, despite Mr Trump calling Nigeria a “disgraced country”.
Over the weekend, Mr Tinubu also pushed back against the claims of religious intolerance and defended his country’s efforts to protect religious freedom.
“The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians,” Mr Tinubu said in a statement.
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Nigeria has been placed on a US list of countries “of particular concern” due to violations of religious freedom.
The list also includes North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and China.
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Boko Haram – which kidnapped more than 270 schoolgirls in 2014 – is the main group cited in previous warnings by US and international governments.
The group has committed “egregious violations of religious freedom”, according to a 2021 report by the bipartisan US Commission on International Religious Freedom.
It said more than 37,000 people had been killed by Islamist groups in Nigeria since 2011.
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Nigeria is a country of more than 200 million people, which is divided between the largely Muslim north and mostly Christian south.
An Islamist insurgency has dragged on for over 15 years and is largely confined to the northeast of the country, which is majority Muslim.
While Christians have been killed, most of the victims have been Muslims, analysts say.
