Trump Claims Christians in Nigeria Face ‘Existential Threat,’ Urges U.S. Investigation into Killings

Former U.S. President Donald Trump has raised alarm over what he described as an “existential threat” to Christians in Nigeria, urging American lawmakers to investigate what he called a “mass slaughter” of believers in the country.

In a post shared on his Truth Social platform on Friday, Trump alleged that “thousands of Christians are being killed” in Nigeria, blaming “radical Islamists” for the violence.

“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” Trump claimed, without providing evidence.

He further stated that he was designating Nigeria a “country of particular concern”, a term used by the U.S. State Department to describe nations accused of committing or tolerating “severe violations of religious freedom.”

Trump said he had asked two U.S. lawmakers to look into the matter and pressed for urgent action.

“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!” he wrote.

Trump’s remarks echo past claims by U.S. lawmakers and advocacy groups warning of a “Christian genocide” in Nigeria — a narrative that Nigerian authorities have repeatedly rejected, describing the crisis as multifaceted rather than religiously motivated.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation, is almost evenly divided between a Muslim-majority north and a largely Christian south. The country has been battling insecurity for more than a decade, with overlapping crises that include jihadist insurgency, banditry, and farmer-herder conflicts.

In the northeast, Islamist group Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have waged a violent insurgency for over 15 years — claiming more than 40,000 lives and displacing around two million people.

Meanwhile, vast areas of the northwest and north-central regions have been ravaged by criminal gangs, commonly referred to as bandits, who carry out mass kidnappings, killings, and village raids — often driven by economic and security breakdowns rather than religious ideology.

Clashes between mostly Muslim herders and predominantly Christian farmers over land and water have also deepened tensions in the country’s middle belt, giving the conflicts a religious appearance.

However, analysts and conflict experts stress that the root causes are largely socio-economic and environmental, linked to population pressure, desertification, and competition over dwindling resources, rather than an orchestrated religious campaign.

Despite these complexities, Trump’s statement is expected to reignite debate over how the U.S. government should engage with Nigeria on issues of human rights, security, and religious freedom.

Opinion Nigeria News