United States President Donald Trump has acknowledged that Muslims are also among those being killed in Nigeria, while warning that the U.S. could carry out additional airstrikes if the violence persists.
The warning followed recent U.S. military action in Nigeria and drew international reactions, including condemnation from Pope Leo XIV, who criticised attacks on sovereign nations by the United States, Russia, and others.
On Christmas Day, U.S. forces bombed two camps operated by a jihadist group known as Lakurawa in Sokoto State, a predominantly Muslim area in north-western Nigeria close to the Niger border. The strikes came roughly a month after Trump publicly threatened to deploy U.S. troops into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing to wipe out the terrorists killing our cherished Christians,” amid repeated claims by some American politicians that Christians are being targeted for genocide in the country.
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Neither the U.S. nor Nigerian authorities have released casualty figures from the operation, and no official assessment of the outcome has been made public.
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In an interview with The New York Times, Trump suggested that further military action remains an option, stating: “I’d love to make it a one-time strike. But if they continue to kill Christians, it will be a many-time strike.”
Nigeria’s government has consistently rejected accusations that it is failing to protect Christians from extremist violence. However, it has expressed willingness to work with the United States and other allied nations to address the country’s security challenges.
In October, Trump’s senior adviser for Arab and African affairs, Massad Boulos, said Boko Haram and ISIS were killing more Muslims than Christians. Responding to that assessment, Trump said: “I think that Muslims are being killed also in Nigeria. But it’s mostly Christians.”
