Donald Trump has warned the US army “could be” deployed to Nigeria or perform air strikes to cease what he referred to as the killing of huge numbers of Christians.
Posting on Fact Social final week, the US president claimed radical Islamists are committing “mass slaughter” and Christianity is “facing an existential threat” within the West African nation.
On Sunday, Mr Trump was requested whether or not he envisioned troops on the bottom or air strikes in Nigeria.
“Could be. I mean, other things. I envisage a lot of things. They’re killing record numbers of Christians in Nigeria…
“They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very giant numbers. We’re not going to permit that to occur,” he instructed reporters throughout a flight on Air Drive One.
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Nigerian newspapers that includes Trump’s warning. Pic: Reuters
Nigeria has responded to threats of US army motion by suggesting it might welcome assist tackling Islamist insurgents, however insisted on Sunday that America should respect its sovereignty.
“We welcome US assistance as long as it recognises our territorial integrity,” Daniel Bwala, an adviser to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, instructed Reuters.
However Mr Bwala additionally sought to minimize tensions between the 2 nations, regardless of Mr Trump calling Nigeria a “disgraced country”.
Over the weekend, Mr Tinubu additionally pushed again towards the claims of spiritual intolerance and defended his nation’s efforts to guard spiritual freedom.
“The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians,” Mr Tinubu stated in an announcement.
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Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu has pushed again towards the claims of spiritual intolerance. File pic: AP
Nigeria has been positioned on a US listing of nations “of particular concern” resulting from violations of spiritual freedom.
The listing additionally consists of North Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Pakistan and China.
Boko Haram – which kidnapped greater than 270 schoolgirls in 2014 – is the principle group cited in earlier warnings by US and worldwide governments.
The group has dedicated “egregious violations of religious freedom”, in keeping with a 2021 report by the bipartisan US Fee on Worldwide Spiritual Freedom.
It stated greater than 37,000 individuals had been killed by Islamist teams in Nigeria since 2011.
Nigeria is a rustic of greater than 200 million individuals, which is split between the largely Muslim north and largely Christian south.
An Islamist insurgency has dragged on for over 15 years and is basically confined to the northeast of the nation, which is majority Muslim.
Whereas Christians have been killed, a lot of the victims have been Muslims, analysts say.
