omits that Boko Haram also kills Muslims

Through his platform, Truth Social, the tenant of the White House announced this Sunday that he had ordered the Department of Defense to be prepared to carry out “rapid, violent and satisfactory” action in Nigeria.

“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the murder of Christians, the United States will immediately suspend all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well enter that now disgraced country, ‘at gunpoint,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” he wrote.

“Yes, sir,” the Pentagon chief replied after a few minutes, Pete Hegseth. “The murder of innocent Christians in Nigeria—and anywhere—must stop immediately. The War Department is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”

On Sunday, Trump explained from Air Force One that he could either launch airstrikes or deploy troops to stop the murders of “a large number” of Christians.

The Republican president called what happened in Nigeria a genocide, and accused the Government of Tinubu Ball to do nothing to prevent it. Although his own advisor for Arab and Islamic affairs, Massad Bouloshad dismantled that theory just a few weeks ago after meeting in Rome with the Nigerian president.

The businessman of Lebanese origin then recognized that, in Nigeria, jihadist groups had killed more Muslims than Christians.

“Terrorism has no color, no religion, no tribe,” stressed Trump’s advisor. “We even know that Boko Haram and ISIS are killing more Muslims than Christians, so people of all backgrounds are suffering. This is not specifically directed at one group or another.”

“The characterization of Nigeria as a religiously intolerant country does not reflect our national reality,” Tinubu himself reacted, adding on Sunday through his advisor Daniel Bwala that he would welcome American military assistance if it was to combat Islamist insurgents. He only set the condition of respecting the territorial integrity of the country and its sovereignty.

With more than 200 million inhabitants and around 200 ethnic groups, Nigeria is divided in half on matters of faith. The north is predominantly Muslim. The south, on the other hand, is predominantly Christian.

Both Boko Haram and its splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), an affiliate of Daesh, have been operating in the northeast of the country for almost two decades.

Islamist insurgents have killed around 40,000 people, according to the UN count. The majority of the fatalities are Muslims. Not Christians, as Trump and his satellites denounce, who incur the same bias that they exhibit in South Africa with the white population.

Indiscriminate violence

“Insurgent groups such as Boko Haram and ISWAP usually present their campaigns as anti-Christian, but in practice their violence is indiscriminate and devastates entire communities,” he explains in conversation with this newspaper. Ladd SerwatPrincipal Africa Analyst for ACLED.

“Islamist violence,” adds the specialist, “is part of the complex and often overlapping conflict dynamics in the country, which include struggles for political power, land disputes, ethnic issues, sectarian affiliations and banditry.”

According to the monitoring center, based in Madison (Wisconsin), of the 1,923 attacks against the civilian population that have occurred this year in Nigeria, only 50 targeted the Christian population for religious motivations. That is, less than 3% of cases. An anecdote that Trump intends to make category of.

In the last fifteen years, at least 52,915 civilians have died in selective political assassinations, including, according to ACLED, both Christians and Muslims. In the last five, there have been around 389 cases of violence directed against Christians, resulting in the deaths of 318 people. In the same period, another 197 attacks were directed against Muslims, causing 418 fatalities.

Is there any truth in Trump’s statements? “While religion is a component of these dynamics, Nigeria’s large population and vast geographic differences make it impossible to claim that religious violence motivates all of the country’s high levels of insecurity,” Serwat responds.

“It is important to note that, although attacks against Christians are real and deeply worrying, communities of all religions are affected,” insists the specialist. “Reports do not always mention the religious identity of the victims, so any data or figures likely represent an underestimate.”

Nigeria defends itself

Bwala says Nigeria “does not discriminate against any ethnic group or religion in the fight against insecurity” and that “there is no Christian genocide.” Its boss, President Tinubu, is a Muslim from the south of the country married to Oluremi Tinubua senator who is also a Christian pastor.

The former governor of Lagos, who just a few weeks ago remodeled the military leadership after putting down a coup attempt, has just appointed Lieutenant General as Chief of the Defense Staff Breathe the Lighta Christian.

The Nigerian authorities repeat the same question: why now? The response is related to the pressure campaign that several conservative political leaders have been carrying out. This is the case of congressmen Chris Smith y Riley Moore and the senator Ted Cruzwho accused Nigerian authorities of turning a blind eye to the “mass murder” of Christians.

The three Republican leaders asked the White House to include Nigeria on the list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC). A step that Trump already took in the final stretch of his first term and that he took again last Friday after Joe Biden reverse the measure.

The list includes countries whose Government has “incurred or tolerated particularly serious violations of religious freedom.” North Korea, China, Cuba, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are some of the States that accompany Nigeria in this category.

The designation may lead to sanctions, economic retaliation or travel restrictions. The United States, in fact, already restricted visas for Nigerians last July. Among those affected is Wole Soyinka himself.

Intervention?

Any US military intervention in Nigeria will be complex. Even more so after losing last year the 1,000 troops stationed in neighboring Niger, another country besieged by the jihadist insurgency in the Sahel.

“Predictable or not, a unilateral intervention against the will of the Nigerian authorities would be precisely the wrong path for Washington to take,” the analyst writes. Ebenezer Obadare en el Council of Foreign Relations (CFR).

Obadare believes that, “by running roughshod over a sovereign state whose authorities have shown a willingness to collaborate, President Trump would unnecessarily fan skeptics who have argued that his apparent concern for the well-being of Nigerian Christians is more of an ego trip than a genuine desire to see Boko Haram defeated.”

“In addition,” adds the author, “such a move would divert attention from Boko Haram and focus the debate on the ethics of intervention and the arrogance of a superpower that treads with contempt on an impoverished African country.”