Trump Threatens Military Intervention in Nigeria: What to Know

Security personnel patrol the streets amid a surge in violence in Mangu, Plateau State, Nigeria, in this screengrab obtained from a video on Jan. 24, 2024. Reuters TV via Reuters

 

 

Trump Threatens Military Intervention in Nigeria: What to Know

 

 

11/11/2025

By Beige Luciano-Adams

Reprinted from The Epoch Times

 

In a series of strongly worded warnings over the past week, U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested that the U.S. government will consider military intervention to stop the “mass slaughter” of Christians at the hands of Islamic terrorists in Nigeria.

In a Nov. 5 video address, Trump warned that Christianity in Africa’s most populous country is facing an “existential crisis,” referring to reports that thousands of Christians are killed in religiously motivated attacks each year.

The president threatened to cut off all aid to Nigeria and suggested that ground troops and air strikes may be on the table. He also relisted Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern,” a formal designation that can lead to sanctions and other consequences.

U.S. lawmakers, including Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.), have also drawn attention to the plight of Nigerian Christians, who have long suffered brutal attacks at the hands of Islamists.

Reports of Christians Persecuted

Trump, Cruz, and Moore point to reports by nongovernmental organizations claiming that more than 50,000 or even more than 100,000 Christians have been killed since 2009 and that 7,000 have been “martyred” so far this year. The reports also say that nearly 20,000 churches or religious institutions have been destroyed, with thousands kidnapped and millions displaced.

Other sources have reported increased violence against Christians in recent years but lower overall estimated deaths.

Nigerian officials deny that Christians are persecuted. They said they welcomed U.S. help fighting terrorist violence as long as it respects Nigerian sovereignty.

The Nigerian government stated that the crisis is driven by a mix of factors—including ethnic conflicts and land-use disputes, as well as banditry and criminality, rather than faith-based violence. Government officials have claimed that more Muslims are being killed than Christians.

Nigeria Denies Christian Genocide

In a speech posted to social media on Nov. 5, Mohammed Idris, Nigeria’s minister of information, said Trump’s threats were based on misinformation.

Idris acknowledged that the country has faced “longstanding” and serious security challenges since the 2009 emergence of Islamist terror group Boko Haram and other “criminal elements” but said Tinubu’s administration has taken decisive action.

Since 2023, state security agencies have “neutralized” more than 13,500 terrorists, arrested more than 17,000 who are suspects now facing interrogation or prosecution, and rescued more than 9,800 kidnapping victims, he said.

“The menace of terrorism in Nigeria does not exclusively target any religious or ethnic group. As in many parts of the world, extremism is mindless, blind to religion, tribe, or class. It is a war against all peace-loving Nigerians and against the unity and progress of our great country,” Idris said.

While critics claim that killings have increased under Tinubu, his administration says the rate of killings has decreased since he took office.

Religious Violence, Growing Security Crisis

The U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom in 2024 reported “systemic, ongoing, and egregious” violations of religious freedom in Nigeria, noting that the government uses blasphemy laws to prosecute and imprison individuals of various faiths.

The Nigerian government, the report notes, “continues to tolerate egregious violence by non-state actors,” which impacts Christians and Muslims in several states across the country, targeting “both religious sites and individuals from religious minority communities.”

The roots of the current security crisis stem from the 2009 rise of Boko Haram, the radical Islamist group that kidnapped 270 mostly Christian secondary school girls in 2014. Ninety-one are still missing or in captivity, according to a recent U.N. report criticizing the country for “grave and systemic” violations of women and girls’ rights.

But in the years since, other perpetrators have entered the fray. These include the Islamic State West Africa Province and other Islamist splinter groups, as well as bandits, regional armed groups, and ethnically affiliated militias.

Nigeria’s 227 million people are about evenly split between Muslims and Christians. And in many ways, the country offers an example of integrated coexistence. The president is a Muslim, his wife a Christian pastor, and both faiths are represented throughout government.

Nigeria’s North is predominantly Muslim, with 12 northern states adopting Sharia law. But some severely impacted northern states are predominantly Christian.

In recent years, increasing attacks on Christian villages in the country’s fertile Middle Belt or North Central region have drawn attention to longstanding conflicts between farmers, who are largely Christian, and Fulani herdsmen, who are semi-nomadic and predominantly Muslim.

The Nigerian government characterizes this as a land-use dispute driven by the climate, resource scarcity, and population growth. However, international observers report an increase in attacks on Christians by militant Fulani factions.

According to Open Doors, an organization that tracks persecution of Christians, Fulani militants are responsible for 55 percent of recorded Christian deaths between 2019 and 2023.
A May report from Amnesty International reported that at least 10,217 people have been killed in attacks by armed groups since Tinubu took office in 2023, the vast majority of those in the country’s Middle Belt region.
The organization attributed the violence to the government’s “shocking failure to protect lives and property from daily attacks by armed groups and bandits that has cost thousands of lives and created a potential humanitarian crisis across many northern states.”

What’s Next

Without an American-controlled base nearby, AFRICOM may face significant logistical hurdles in entering Nigeria to wipe out Islamic militants.

Last year, AFRICOM was ordered out of the neighboring country of Niger after a military junta seized power. Having abandoned its $110-million drone base there, where it helped train and support counterterrorism missions in the region, the United States would likely have to operate from friendly neighboring countries or move aircraft carriers into the Gulf of Guinea, on Nigeria’s southern border.

The United States touts a “strong security partnership” with Nigeria and has $590 million in active military sales with the country; significant recent purchases include a $497 million aircraft to support operations against Boko Haram and ISIS.