US President Donald Trump has ordered the Department of War to prepare for possible military action in Nigeria as he accused the nation of violence against Christians.
In a social media post, Trump said the United States would immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria if the country fails to act against the killings of Christians.
The announcement comes after the US designated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” under the International Religious Freedom Act.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has said Nigeria remains committed to upholding religious freedom and tolerance, which he described as core values of the nation’s identity.
The president also warned that he “will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria.”
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and 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,” Trump posted on social media.
“I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!”
The warning came after Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu earlier on Saturday pushed back on Trump announcing a day earlier that he was designating the West African country “a country of particular concern” for allegedly failing to rein in the persecution of Christians.
In a social media statement on Saturday, Tinubu said that the characterization of Nigeria as a religiously intolerant country does not reflect the national reality.
“Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so,” Tinubu said. “Nigeria opposes religious persecution and does not encourage it. Nigeria is a country with constitutional guarantees to protect citizens of all faiths.”
Trump on Friday said “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria” and “radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter.”
Trump’s comment came weeks after U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz urged Congress to designate Africa’s most populous country as a violator of religious freedom with claims of “Christian mass murder.”
Nigeria’s population of 220 million is split almost equally between Christians and Muslims.
The country has long faced insecurity from various fronts including the Boko Haram extremist group, which seeks to establish its radical interpretation of Islamic law and has also targeted Muslims it deems not Muslim enough.