Photo: Alamy
President Donald Trump’s administration is stepping up diplomatic and security engagement with Nigeria as attacks on Christians continue, even as the president warns he is prepared to consider military options unless the West African nation halts the violence.
A State Department official said this week the White House is pursuing a broad strategy that “involves much more than just the potential use of military force,” describing a campaign that includes sanctions pressure, intelligence cooperation, and security assistance alongside diplomatic outreach.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also met with Nigeria’s national security adviser, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, to discuss the crisis. Hegseth posted photos online of the two men shaking hands and smiling, contrasting with the president’s recent threat to halt all U.S. assistance if Nigeria “continues to allow the killing of Christians.”
The administration’s approach reflects President Trump’s pledge to limit deeper American involvement in foreign conflicts, even as the U.S. military footprint across Africa has shrunk. Any intervention in Nigeria would likely require forces redirected from other regions.
President Trump has kept up public pressure amid a wave of attacks on schools and churches targeting both Christians and Muslims. “I’m really angry about it,” the president said Friday on Fox News Radio’s “Brian Kilmeade Show,” alleging Nigeria’s government has “done nothing” and calling the situation “a disgrace.” Nigerian officials have rejected his accusations.
In Nigeria, Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa Province continue to carry out attacks that kill both Muslims and Christians. Separately, violence between mostly Muslim herders and largely Christian farmers has escalated as communities compete for land and water. Criminal gangs motivated by ransom payments have increasingly abducted schoolchildren.
In two mass kidnappings this past week, students were taken from a Catholic school on Friday and seized earlier from a school in a town with a Muslim majority. Gunmen also killed two people at a church and abducted several worshippers in a separate attack.
Security researchers warn that misreading the conflict could carry serious risks. “The consequences are that if the U.S deploys troops on the ground without understanding the context they are in, it poses risks to the troops,” said Malik Samuel of Good Governance Africa.