Nigeria confused by Trump invasion threat

What happened

President Donald Trump said on Saturday that the U.S. may take military action in Nigeria to stop the “killing of Christians.” He also threatened to “immediately stop all aid and assistance” to the West African country, whose population of more than 230 million is split almost evenly between Christians and Muslims. Nigerians were “baffled by Trump’s ire” and “described a mixture of confusion and fear” as they “tried to decipher” his threat, The Washington Post said.

Who said what

“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing,” the U.S. “may very well go” in, “‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists,” Trump said Saturday on social media. “If we attack, it will be fast, vicious and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!” Trump told reporters Sunday night that he “could be” envisioning airstrikes or ground troops to stop the killing of “record numbers of Christians in Nigeria.”

“Both Christians and Muslims are killed in Nigeria’s security crises,” said The Associated Press, and their deaths are “often determined by their locations and not due to their religion.” Boko Haram’s Islamist insurgency is concentrated in predominantly Muslim northern Nigeria. Trump’s claims, following similar allegations from Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and other Christian conservatives, was based on old or misleading reports, said Daniel Bwala, an adviser to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.

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What next?

“We don’t expect there to be U.S. military action in Nigeria,” Bwala told the Post, though the Tinubu government would welcome U.S. intelligence sharing. Still, the “once-outlandish image” of Trump “going in ‘guns-a-blazing’ into Africa’s most populous country” is “being taken seriously as Nigerian leaders watch U.S. forces move in on Venezuela,” Semafor’s Africa editor Yinka Adegoke said.