Christian and Muslim Nigerians oppose threatened US strikes
Nigerians from across the religious spectrum have pushed back against US President Donald Trump’s threats of military intervention in response to the killing of Christians in the country.
Africa’s most populous country, which is roughly evenly split between a mostly Christian south and Muslim-majority north, is home to myriad conflicts, which experts say kill both Christians and Muslims, often without distinction, News.Az reports citing foreign media.
But claims of Christian “persecution” in Nigeria have found traction online among the US and European right in recent months.
“Christians are being killed, we can’t deny the fact that Muslims are [also] being killed,” Danjuma Dickson Auta, a Christian and community leader, told AFP.
Trump said on social media over the weekend that he had asked the Pentagon to map out a possible plan of attack.
Asked by an AFP reporter aboard Air Force One if he was considering putting US troops on the ground or using airstrikes, Trump replied: “Could be, I mean, a lot of things – I envisage a lot of things.”
“They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers,” he said. “We’re not going to allow that to happen.”
Pushing back on the accusations, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu said religious tolerance was “a core tenet of our collective identity”.
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