US President Donald Trump has threatened to launch a US military strike on Nigeria if the African country fails to stop the killing of Christians.
Trump accused the current Nigerian government of failing to stop what he described as the killing of Christians by Islamic insurgents.
In a statement on the Truth Social platform, Trump announced that he had ordered the Department of Defense (Pentagon) to draw up a plan for a potential attack, a day after warning that Christianity was under threat in Nigeria.
In addition, Trump also claimed that thousands of Christians had been killed and insisted that the group involved should be held responsible for the mass killings.
The president also stressed that if the Nigerian government continued to tolerate the killing of Christians, the US would immediately stop all aid and launch an attack to eliminate the group.
Several conservative politicians also reinforced Trump's claims, while some US officials accused Christians in Nigeria of facing genocide.
According to experts, Nigeria is currently facing various internal conflicts that are claiming the lives of Christians and Muslims regardless of religion.
In a statement on the X platform, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu dismissed Trump's accusations as baseless, insisting that Nigeria is a country that upholds religious freedom and tolerance.
Nigeria currently faces various security threats, including killings by the Boko Haram jihadist group in the northeast of the country.
According to the United Nations (UN), since 2009 more than 40,000 lives have been lost and more than two million people have been forced to become refugees in the region.
