US launches ‘powerful strikes’ against Islamic State in Nigeria, says Trump
The United States has launched a “powerful and deadly offensive” against the Islamic State (ISIS) group in northwestern Nigeria, President Donald Trump said.
In a post on Truth Social, the US president described ISIS as “terrorist scum” and accused them of “primarily targeting and brutally killing innocent Christians.”
The U.S. military “conducted a number of excellent strikes,” he said, without providing further details. It is unclear exactly which targets were hit and when.
in November, Trump ordered the US military to prepare for action to combat Islamist militant groups in Nigeria.
“Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to thrive,” Trump said in a post late Thursday.
The US leader did not say which murders he was referring to in his November warning, but in recent months, allegations of genocide against Christians in Nigeria have been circulating in some right-wing US circles.
Groups that monitor the violence say there is no evidence that Christians are killed at higher rates than Muslims in Nigeria, which is roughly evenly divided between adherents of the two religions.
One of Nigerian President Bola Tinubu’s advisers told the BBC at the time that any military action against jihadist groups must be carried out together.
Daniel Bwala said Nigeria would welcome US assistance in the fight against Islamist rebels, but noted that it was a “sovereign” country.
He also said jihadists do not target followers of a particular religion and kill people of all faiths or none.
President Tinubu insisted there was religious tolerance in the country and said security challenges were affecting people of “different faiths and regions.”
Trump had previously announced that he had declared Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” due to the “existential threat” to its Christian population. He said “thousands” of people had been killed without providing any evidence.
This is a definition used by the US State Department, which calls for sanctions against countries that “serious violations of religious freedom”.
Following this announcement, Tinubu said his government was committed to working with the United States and the international community to protect communities of all faiths.
Jihadist groups such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province have wreaked havoc and killed thousands of people in northeastern Nigeria for more than a decade; But most of them were Muslims, according to Acled, a group that analyzes political violence around the world.
In central Nigeria, there are frequent clashes between mostly Muslim herders and mostly Christian farming groups over access to water and pasture.
The deadly cycle of tit-for-tat attacks also left thousands dead; but atrocities were committed on both sides.
Human rights groups say there is no evidence that Christians are disproportionately targeted.
