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President Donald Trump recently reiterated his frustration regarding the violence against Christians in Nigeria as his administration pushes to work with the Nigerian government to deter Islamic terrorists in the West African country.
“I’m really angry about it,” Trump said during an interview last Friday on Fox News Radio, alleging the Nigerian government has “done nothing” and that “what’s happening in Nigeria is a disgrace.”
The Trump administration is pressing Nigeria to stop the escalating attacks against Christian communities there by adopting a multi-pronged strategy that goes beyond unilateral U.S. military action, including the possible “guns-a-blazing” tactic intended “to wipe out the Islamic terrorists,” which Trump threatened earlier this month, according to The Associated Press.
An official with the U.S. State Department who spoke to the outlet stressed the approach is comprehensive and includes the option of force and sanctions, but also enhanced intelligence sharing with the Nigerian government, as well as security assistance, policing support and economic programs.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, who met with Nigerian National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu earlier this month, “emphasized the need for Nigeria to demonstrate commitment and take both urgent and enduring action to stop violence against Christians,” and expressed the U.S. desire to work with Nigerian authorities “to deter and degrade terrorists that threaten the United States,” according to a Pentagon statement.
The push follows a string of brutal incidents that included the abduction of students from both a Catholic school and an institution in a Muslim-majority area. Another attack against a church left worshipers dead or kidnapped.
Though Trump has repeatedly accused the Nigerian government of inaction, it has insisted it is actively fighting the threats and has pushed back against claims of indifference.
Analysts who spoke to the AP warned that limited, high-profile U.S. airstrikes would do little to reverse decades-old instability in the country, and could backfire without a Nigerian partnership that would bolster local governance.
The situation in Nigeria has drawn increasing global attention, with rapper Nicki Minaj speaking out about it, saying “no group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion,” and addressing a U.N. event organized by the U.S. earlier this month.
During a recent interview with The Christian Post, Lanre Williams-Ayedun, a Nigerian-born woman who serves as senior vice president of international programs at the nonprofit World Relief, explained the complexity of the situation in Nigeria, where both Christians and Muslims are murdered by terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and its splinter group, the Islamic State of West Africa Province.
Williams-Ayedun suggested many outsiders might fail to realize the scale of the violence, which is concentrated mostly in the country’s Middle Belt states, where herders from the Muslim-majority regions in the north increasingly clash with farmers in the Christian-majority south.
“When you hear about the numbers of people that have been displaced in sub-Saharan Africa because of religious persecution, I don’t think people really understand that,” she said.
“When you talk about persecution of Christians, people think, ‘Oh, it must be these small numbers of people.’ They don’t realize the vast size that we’re talking about.”
Williams-Ayedun pinpointed economic challenges, poverty and government corruption as major factors driving conflict over diminishing environmental resources, which she said have exacerbated the long-simmering ethnic and religious divides of the country.
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
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