Pat Stevens/
United States President Donald Trump has said he is not ruling out air strikes or the deployment of ground troops as part of what he described as a plan to “completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists killing Christians in Nigeria.”
Speaking to reporters before boarding Air Force One on Sunday, Trump declared that the United States “can no longer afford to look the other way” while Christians are being attacked in the country.
“They are killing record numbers of Christians in Nigeria. It’s also bad in other countries, you know that. They are killing Christians in very large numbers. We are not going to allow that to happen,” he said.
When asked whether the plan could involve direct military intervention, Trump responded, “Yes, there could be.”
The US President had earlier warned the Nigerian government to “move fast” or risk losing all forms of aid and assistance, insisting that his administration would “stop the carnage” if Nigeria failed to act.
Trump recently redesignated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” over what he termed “Christian genocide,” vowing that any US military action would be “fast, vicious and sweet — just like the terrorist thugs that attack our cherished Christians.”
President Bola Tinubu, however, dismissed the allegations, saying Nigeria remains committed to protecting the religious freedoms of all its citizens.
In a statement personally signed on Saturday, Tinubu said, “Nigeria stands firmly as a democracy governed by constitutional guarantees of religious liberty. The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality.”
Daniel Bwala, Special Adviser to the President on Policy Communication, said on Sunday that Tinubu and Trump are expected to meet soon to discuss the claims.
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