The U.S. directed a “powerful and deadly” strike in Nigeria against Islamic State terrorists who persecuted Christians, President Donald Trump said in a statement Thursday.
In coordination with Nigerian authorities, the U.S. conducted the Christmas Day-strikes in Sokoto State, killing multiple ISIS terrorists, U.S. Africa Command said.
“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!” Trump said in a social media post. “I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was.”
Trump recently designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” due to violent extremism against Christians at the hands of terrorists in Nigeria. The U.S. would “stand ready, willing and able” to help Christians, Trump said at the time.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN,’” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Nigerian Christians have been subject to raids in which extremist Fulani Muslim herders massacre, rape, or kidnap Christians; numerous Christian leaders, the administration, as well as several lawmakers including Senator Ted Cruz (R., Texas) and Representatives Tom Cole (R., Okla.), Mario Diaz-Balart (R., Fla.), Riley Moore (R., W.Va.), and more have condemned what Diocese of Sokoto Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah called recently the “mindless killings of our citizens.”
Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa bear most responsibility for attacks against Christians in Nigeria.
“I think in Nigeria, in certain areas, there is certainly a danger for Christians, but for all people. Christians and Muslims have been slaughtered,” Pope Leo XIV said of the region in November.
“There’s a question of terrorism. There’s a question that has to do a lot with economics, if you will, and control of the lands that they have. Unfortunately, many Christians have died, and I think it’s very, it’s important to seek a way for the government, with all peoples, to promote authentic religious freedom.”
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said after Trump announced the strikes that he would “pray for peace in our land, especially between individuals of differing religious beliefs,” adding that he would do “everything within my power to enshrine religious freedom in Nigeria and to protect Christians, Muslims, and all Nigerians from violence.”