US President Donald Trump alarmed many Nigerians over the weekend by saying he was weighing military action in response to what he called a “mass slaughter” of Christians by Islamist militants.
Experts and analysts say the picture is more complicated. Both Christians and Muslims, the two largest faith groups in a nation of more than 230 million, have suffered attacks by radical Islamist groups.
Nigeria’s security crisis has deep roots and multiple drivers. Alongside religion-related violence, there are communal and ethnic clashes and long-running disputes between herders and farmers over land and water.
“Suffering isn’t sectarian.”
Anonymous
What we know
Nigeria’s security crisis has deep roots and multiple drivers. Alongside religion-related violence, there are communal and ethnic clashes and long-running disputes between herders and farmers over land and water.
The Nigerian government rejects claims that it is failing to protect Christians and said it was taken aback by Trump’s suggestion of possible intervention. “We are shocked that President Trump is mulling an invasion of our country,” presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga told Central Voices after Trump said he had instructed the Pentagon to prepare for potential action.
Trump also threatened to halt US aid unless Nigeria moves to stop the killings of Christians, warning that any operation would be “fast and vicious” and aimed at eliminating the “Islamic Terrorists” he blames for the violence.
His comments have drawn strong reactions inside Nigeria, where the claim that “Christianity is facing an existential threat” is widely debated. The country is nearly evenly split between Christians and Muslims, with the north largely Muslim and the south largely Christian.
Facts
In 2012, Boko Haram issued an ultimatum ordering Christians in the north to leave and urging Muslims in the south to return north. John Joseph Hayab, a pastor who leads the Christian Association of Nigeria in the north, told Central Voices he agrees that Christians have faced “systematic killings” in the region. He said the scale has eased somewhat in the last two years but that he has presided over numerous mass burials and that every northern state has endured deadly attacks on Christians. He urged the government to recognize the problem and act rather than deny it, and credited US Senator Ted Cruz with elevating the issue; Cruz introduced a bill in August seeking sanctions against Nigeria for alleged religious freedom violations.
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Analysts note that while Christians have been targeted by Boko Haram and other extremist groups, Muslims – including moderates – have also been attacked. Bulama Bukarti, a Nigerian human rights advocate focused on security and development, told Central Voices that Trump’s remarks “reflect a dangerous oversimplification of Nigeria’s complex security crisis.”
