U.S. President Donald Trump has announced that he ordered the Pentagon to start planning for potential military action in Nigeria – sharply criticising Nigeria’s government for what he says is its failure to stop the persecution and killing of Christians.
"The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!" – PRESIDENT DONALD J. TRUMP pic.twitter.com/jvWcJmUPJ7
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) October 31, 2025
In a social media post on Saturday, 1st November, Trump threatened to “immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria.” He also said the U.S. “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.”
This powerful warning came just one day after Trump officially labelled Nigeria a “country of particular concern” for not protecting religious freedom. Trump said that “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria” and blamed radical Islamists for a mass slaughter. His comments also follow a push from US Senator Ted Cruz, who recently asked Congress to name Nigeria a violator of religious freedom, pointing to what he called “Christian mass murder.”
These claims were quickly rejected by Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu. On Saturday, President Tinubu said that naming Nigeria a religiously intolerant country does not reflect the national reality. He explained that religious liberty is at the heart of who Nigeria is, and its constitution pledges to protect citizens of all faiths.
A spokesperson with Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Ebienfa, concurred: “The Nigerian government will defend all citizens irrespective of race, creed, or religion.” Like America, he said, Nigeria too must learn to “celebrate the diversity that is our greatest strength.”
With 220 million citizens, roughly equally divided between Christians and Muslims, Nigeria has struggled with security concerns across decades from a myriad of groups. This includes the extremist group Boko Haram, which wants to create its own state and has attacked both Muslims and Christians. It also includes violent clashes between farmers and herders for land and other communal or ethnic fights.
While Christians are among the targets in these attacks, most of the victims of these armed groups are actually Muslims, especially in the north of the country where most of the attacks take place, analysts say. This is not a new issue: the U.S. had first placed Nigeria on its “country of particular concern” list in 2020; it later removed that label in 2023, a move that was seen at the time as a way to improve relations between the two countries ahead of a visit by the U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken.
