Trump Orders Pentagon to Plan Possible Military Action in Nigeria

President Trump said on Saturday that he had told the Pentagon to prepare for possible military action in Nigeria, escalating a dispute over violence against Christians in Africa’s most populous country. In a social media post, he wrote that if Nigeria “continues to allow the killing of Christians,” the United States would stop all aid and assistance, according to PBS NewsHour and NBC News.

The threat followed Friday’s announcement that the administration was designating Nigeria a “country of particular concern,” the State Department’s label for severe violations of religious freedom, PBS reported. Trump said Christianity faces an existential threat there. Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, had pressed Congress to take that step, citing what he called Christian mass murder. NBC reported that two administration officials said Trump decided to post after watching a Fox News segment on the violence, and that a White House spokeswoman, Anna Kelly, said the administration is planning options for possible action. Officials told NBC that precision drone strikes are among the preliminary options.

Nigeria’s government pushed back. President Bola Tinubu said religious freedom is a core part of the country’s identity, and a foreign ministry spokesman said the government will defend citizens of every faith, PBS reported. Daniel Bwala, an adviser to Tinubu, told the BBC that Nigeria is a sovereign country and that military action against Islamist groups should be carried out jointly, according to NBC.

The situation on the ground is more complicated than a single narrative, according to the reporting. Nigeria has more than 200 million people, divided nearly evenly between Christians and Muslims. Violence there has many sources, including the extremist group Boko Haram and its offshoots, clashes between herders and farmers, and ethnic and communal disputes. Analysts told PBS that most victims of armed groups in the north are Muslims. Miriam Adah of the research group ACLED told NBC that “both Christians and Muslims are victims,” and Darren Kerr of the University of California San Diego said framing the conflict along religious lines is “probably extremely unhelpful”. NBC also noted that Massad Boulos, a State Department adviser, said in October that Boko Haram and the Islamic State kill more Muslims than Christians.

Cruz and other supporters of the designation argue that Nigeria has not done enough to protect its Christian communities. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom has documented attacks affecting both communities, NBC reported.

The United States first put Nigeria on the particular-concern list in 2020 and lifted the designation in 2023, PBS noted. It is unclear what a military operation would look like or whether Nigeria would consent to one. Trump has offered few specifics about what he has in mind.