By Andrea Shalal and Camillus Eboh
WASHINGTON/ABUJA (Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said he has asked the Defense Department to prepare for possible “fast” military action in Nigeria if the West African nation fails to crack down on the killing of Christians.
The U.S. government will also immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and top oil producer, Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
If the United States sends in military forces, it would go in “‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump wrote, without providing any evidence of specifics about the treatment of Christians in Nigeria.
Trump called Nigeria a “disgraced country” and warned its government must move quickly. “If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!” he wrote.
Abuja had no immediate reaction to Trump’s threat of military action. The White House also had no immediate comment on the potential timing of any U.S. military action.
Although the U.S. Department of Defense referred Reuters to the White House for comment on Trump’s threat, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released a social media post of his own.
“The Department of War is preparing for action,” Hegseth wrote on X. “Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
Trump’s post on Nigeria came a day after his administration added Nigeria back to a “Countries of Particular Concern” list of nations that the U.S. says have violated religious freedom. Other nations on the list include China, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Pakistan.
Before Trump posted his attack threat, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu earlier on Saturday pushed back against claims of religious intolerance and defended his country’s efforts to protect religious freedom.
“The characterization 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,” Tinubu said in a statement, citing “constitutional guarantees to protect citizens of all faiths.”
Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry, in a separate statement, vowed to keep fighting violent extremism and said it hoped Washington would remain a close ally, saying it “will continue to defend all citizens, irrespective of race, creed, or religion. Like America, Nigeria has no option but to celebrate the diversity that is our greatest strength.”
The U.S. military footprint in West Africa was significantly diminished when about 1,000 troops withdrew from Niger last year. While the U.S. sometimes has small groups of troops in the region to take part in drills, the largest U.S. military base on the continent is in East Africa in Djibouti, which hosts over 5,000 troops and is used for operations in the region.
TRUMP PUT NIGERIA ON ‘CONCERN LIST’ DURING FIRST TERM
Trump had designated Nigeria a country of concern during his first term in the White House. His Democratic successor Joe Biden removed it from the U.S. State Department list in 2021.
On Friday, Trump said “thousands of Christians” were being killed in Nigeria by radical Islamists, but offered no details.
Nigeria, which has 200 ethnic groups practicing Christianity, Islam and traditional religions, has a long history of peaceful coexistence, but it has also seen flare-ups of violence among groups, often exacerbated by ethnic divisions or conflict over scarce resources.
The extremist Islamist armed group Boko Haram has also terrorized northeast Nigeria, an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people over the past 15 years. Human rights experts have said most Boko Haram victims have been Muslims.
U.S. lawmakers such as Representative Tom Cole, a Republican who chairs the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, hailed Trump’s move on Friday, citing what they called “the alarming and ongoing persecution of Christians across the country.”
The committee’s fiscal 2026 national security appropriations bill included increased funding for international religious freedom programs and support for programs supporting communities in Nigeria targeted by extremist violence.
Trump’s re-designation of Nigeria as a country of concern opens the door to a range of policy responses such as sanctions or waivers, but they are not automatic.
Some religious groups pressed Trump for the re-designation in a letter last month, according to a copy on the Hudson Institute think tank’s website.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” Trump wrote without offering any specifics. He also called on the U.S. House of Representatives Appropriations Committee to investigate.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal, Doina Chiacu, Susan Heavey and Idrees Ali in Washington, Ismail Shakil in Ottawa and Camillus Eboh in Abuja; Editing by MacDonald Dzirutwe, Andrea Ricci, Sergio Non and Lincoln Feast.)
