<\/p>\n
The president claimed that militants are “slaughtering” terrorists in Nigeria, and has threatened to militarily intervene in Africa’s most populous country.<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump on Thursday said he ordered \u201cnumerous\u201d strikes on Islamic State terrorists in Nigeria he accused of killing Christians.<\/p>\n
“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 post on Truth Social.<\/p>\n
Trump said the \u201cpowerful and deadly\u201d strikes had been directed at militants in the northwest of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
“MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues,” he added.<\/p>\n
A video posted by the Pentagon showed at least one projectile launched from a warship, though the precise target was unclear.<\/p>\n
U.S. and Nigerian officials confirmed the two countries had cooperated on the strikes, a shift in tone from Trump’s past criticism of the Nigerian government. Nigeria is one of Africa\u2019s largest economies and the continent’s most populous country with some 240 million people split between Christians, Muslims, and other faiths.<\/p>\n A statement issued by the U.S. Defense Department’s AFRICOM said that \u201cin coordination with Nigerian authorities, U.S. Africa Command conducted strikes against ISIS terrorists in Nigeria … in Sokoto State.\u201d<\/p>\n Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he was \u201cgrateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation,\u201d while sharing the\u00a0statement from Trump\u00a0that criticized and threatened Nigerian officials.<\/p>\n Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Maitama Tuggar told the BBC that the U.S. strike was a “joint operation” targeting “terrorists,” and it “has nothing to do with a particular religion.”<\/p>\n In late October, Trump began warning that Christianity faces an \u201cexistential threat\u201d in Nigeria and threatened to militarily intervene in the West African country over what he says is its failure to stop violence targeting Christian communities.<\/p>\n The government of Nigeria, as well as experts and scholars, have\u00a0said that Trump\u2019s portrayal of the security situation\u00a0in the West African country is misleading as members of all faiths have suffered at the hands of Islamist extremists.<\/p>\n Violence and insecurity are serious concerns in Nigeria. While the government has repeatedly vowed to end the scourge, attacks persist despite military operations and negotiations.<\/p>\n On Wednesday night,\u00a0a blast at a mosque in the northeast of the country killed five people and injured dozens.<\/p>\n Kidnappings for ransom are also common, particularly in Nigeria’s northwest, where armed gangs have targeted clergy, travellers and villagers.<\/p>\n Earlier this week, a final group of 130 kidnapped schoolchildren freed by the government were expected to be reunited with their families in the central Niger state, ending a month-long ordeal.<\/p>\n The children were among more than 300 pupils and 12 staff members seized from a Catholic school on Nov. 21 in one of the country’s worst school kidnappings in recent years.<\/p>\n School kidnappings surged after Boko Haram, a militant group with links to ISIS, abducted 276 girls from Chibok in 2014.<\/p>\n In a\u00a0Christmas Eve post, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu wrote on X that he prays for peace in the country, especially between those of different religions.<\/p>\n \u201cI stand committed to doing everything within my power to enshrine religious freedom in Nigeria and to protect Christians, Muslims, and all Nigerians from violence,\u201d he wrote.<\/p>\n Tinubu\u00a0wrote in a Nov. 1 post\u00a0on the platform that the \u201ccharacterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality.\u201d He added that the country and its government \u201copposes religious persecution and does not encourage it.\u201d<\/p>\n The U.S. has recently taken steps\u00a0to punish Nigeria for its perceived failure to protect Christians.<\/p>\n In October, Trump added Nigeria back onto a list of countries that the U.S. says have violated religious freedom. Earlier this week, Nigeria was added to the U.S. travel ban list of countries facing partial restrictions and entry limitations.<\/p>\n Republican U.S. Rep. Riley Moore, who recently traveled to the African country, also recently reiterated that the U.S. and Nigeria have established a joint task force to work on security.<\/p>\n The U.S. military last week launched separate\u00a0large-scale strikes against dozens of Islamic State targets in Syria, after Trump vowed to hit back in the wake of a suspected ISIS attack on U.S. personnel in the country.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The president claimed that militants are “slaughtering” terrorists in Nigeria, and has threatened to militarily intervene in Africa’s most populous country. President Donald Trump…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":185,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[77,64,76,46,66],"class_list":["post-184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-christians","tag-isis","tag-nigeria","tag-trump","tag-u-s"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184\/revisions\/186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/socializenews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}