This weekend, President Donald Trump threatened to take military action against Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country, if the country’s government does not stop the killing of Christians by Islamist militants.
Mr. Trump did not specify which attacks on Christians he was referring to, and did not cite any evidence for the claim, made in recent weeks by several of his political allies, that Christians are being targeted in Nigeria.
What did Trump threaten?
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the USA 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,” Mr. Trump posted on social media on Saturday.
“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!”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded to the president’s post with: “Yes sir.” The Pentagon, he said, was “preparing for action.”
A day earlier, the Trump administration said it would reinstate Nigeria as a “country of particular concern,” a label that the U.S. government applies to nations “engaged in severe violations of religious freedom.” Mr. Trump took a similar step in 2020, near the end of his first term, which was reversed during the Biden administration.
Mr. Trump’s threat of military intervention was a substantial escalation. He was asked by reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night if he was considering airstrikes or troops on the ground in Nigeria. “I envisage a lot of things,” he said. “They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers. We’re not going to allow that to happen.”
In the days leading up to Trump’s threats, several of his political allies have made similar accusations. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas accused Nigeria of “facilitating the mass murder” of Christians.
Nigeria’s response
Nigeria has denied the accusations. Its president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, on Saturday defended the country’s protection of religious groups, saying on social media that “Nigeria stands firmly as a democracy governed by constitutional guarantees of religious liberty.”
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,” Mr. Tinubu added in a statement.
Violence in Nigeria
Around 220 million people live in Nigeria, with substantial populations of both Christians and Muslims.
Parts of the country have long suffered violence at the hands of extremists, including Boko Haram, an Islamist terror group in northeastern Nigeria that has attacked both Christians and Muslims it does not consider faithful enough. A splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province, has carried out similar attacks.
Extremist violence in the country “affects large numbers of Christians and Muslims in several states across Nigeria,” the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom found in 2024, during the Biden administration.
There have also been repeated deadly clashes in central Nigeria between herdsmen and farmers, as a battle for scarce resources stirs long-held tensions over religion and ethnicity. The herders are typically ethnic Fulani and Muslim, and the farmers are mostly Christians. Some conflicts are simply about armed men seizing land. And Northwest Nigeria has a significant kidnap-for-ransom industry.
Ruth Maclean contributed reporting.
Pranav Baskar is an international reporter and a member of the 2025-26 Times Fellowship class, a program for journalists early in their careers.
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