The U.S. Department of Defence, which President Donald Trump renamed the Department of Defence, said it is “preparing for action” in Nigeria.
The US Defence Secretary, the equivalent of the Minister of Defence in Nigeria, Pete Hegseth, said this in a post on X in response to a Saturday night statement by Mr Trump that the US would stop aid to Nigeria and would deploy troops to “completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists” killing Nigerian Christians.
The Nigerian government earlier denied allegations of Christian genocide in Nigeria, following Mr Trump’s claim that Christianity faces an existential threat in the country and his declaration of Nigeria as a ‘Country of Particular Concern.’
President Bola Tinubu pointed out that such portrayals made by Mr Trump do not reflect the country’s reality.
He also said that the country strictly upholds the constitutional guarantees of religious liberty and does not encourage religious intolerance.
“Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so,” he said.
The Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs also earlier stated that Nigeria is committed to tackling the violent extremism “fueled by special interests who have helped drive such decay and division in countries across the intersecting West African and Sahel regions.”
Meanwhile, the designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern followed months of campaigns and demands by some Republican lawmakers for the US to sanction Nigeria for allowing the “persecution of Christians.”
The officials had also falsely accused the federal government of facilitating this anti-Christian crusade in an attempt to rid the country of Christians.
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