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05-11-2025
ABUJA: Nigeria has said it would welcome assistance from the United States in fighting armed groups, as long as its territorial integrity is respected, as US President Donald Trump continued to threaten military action in the West African country over what he claimed was the persecution of Christians there.
Officials and experts in Nigeria on Sunday denied Trump’s claims of mass killings of Christians, noting that Boko Haram and al-Qaeda-linked groups target people of all faiths in Africa’s most populous country but Trump who has directed his government to prepare for possible “fast” military action in Africa’s most populous country doubled down on the threat on Sunday, saying he was he was considering a range of military options in Nigeria,
When asked by a reporter if he was considering US troops on the ground in Nigeria or air strikes, Trump replied: “Could be, I mean, a lot of things, I envisage a lot of things.”
“They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers. We’re not going to allow that to happen,” he added.
Nigeria, a country of more than 200 million people, is divided between the largely Muslim north and mostly Christian south. Armed groups have been engaged in a conflict that has been largely confined to the northeast of the country, which is majority Muslim, and has dragged on for more than 15 years.
Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, a spokesman for Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in an interview on Sunday, denied Trump’s claims of mass killings of Christians.
“We are not proud of the security situation that we are passing through, but to go with the narrative” that only Christians are targeted, “no, it is not true. There is no Christian genocide in Nigeria”, he said.
“We’ve continuously made our point clear that we acknowledge the fact that there are killings that have taken place in Nigeria, but those killings were not restricted to Christians alone. Muslims are being killed. Traditional worshippers are being killed… The majority is not the Christian population.”
Imomotimi Ebienfa said Nigeria was ready to work with its partners to “fight this scourge of terrorism, but not any passive action that will undermine the sovereignty of our country”.
He also vehemently denied that the Nigerian government has allowed the killings to take place.
“The killings are not sanctioned by the Nigerian government,” he said. “The killing of any Nigerian in any part of the country is a loss to the country … The perpetrators of these killings are terrorist groups Boko Haram and other al-Qaeda and (ISIL) ISIS-affiliated groups that are perpetuating this crisis.”
An adviser to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu also echoed the sentiment.
Daniel Bwala told media that the country would “welcome US assistance as long as it recognises our territorial integrity”.
Bwala sought to play down tensions between the two states, despite Trump calling Nigeria a “disgraced country”.
“We don’t take it literally, because we know Donald Trump thinks well of Nigeria,” Bwala said.
“I am sure by the time these two leaders meet and sit, there would be better outcomes in our joint resolve to fight terrorism,” he said.
Trump’s threat of military action came a day after his administration added Nigeria back to a “Countries of Particular Concern” list of nations that Washington says have violated religious freedoms. Other nations on the list include China, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Pakistan. (Int’l News Desk)
