US President Donald Trump on Sunday repeated his menace of a army operation in Nigeria over the killings of Christians, after the Nigerian presidency steered a gathering to resolve the difficulty.
Requested by an AFP reporter aboard Air Pressure One if he was contemplating US troops on the bottom in Nigeria or air strikes, Trump replied: “May very well be, I imply, a whole lot of issues – I envisage a whole lot of issues.”
“They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very giant numbers. We’re not going to permit that to occur,” he added.
In an explosive submit on his Fact Social platform on Saturday, Trump mentioned that he requested the Pentagon to map out a potential plan of assault in Nigeria, in the future after warning that Christianity was “dealing with an existential menace” in Africa’s most populous nation.
Nigeria, which is nearly evenly divided between a Muslim-majority north and a largely Christian south, is embroiled in quite a few conflicts that consultants say have killed each Christians and Muslims with out distinction.
In his submit, Trump mentioned that if Nigeria doesn’t stem the killings, the US will assault and “will probably be quick, vicious, and candy, identical to the terrorist thugs assault our CHERISHED Christians.”
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s spokesman, Daniel Bwala, advised AFP on Sunday that “Nigeria is the US’s associate within the world combat in opposition to terrorism. When leaders meet, there can be higher outcomes.”
“Nigeria welcomes US assist to combat terrorism so long as it respects our territorial integrity,” he mentioned.
“We don’t see the (Trump’s social media submit) within the literal sense,” he mentioned.
“We all know that Donald Trump has his personal type of communication,” he mentioned, suggesting the submit was a method to “pressure a sit-down between the 2 leaders to allow them to iron out a typical entrance to combat their insecurity.”
Earlier Bwala had steered in a submit on X that the 2 leaders may meet quickly.
“As for the variations as as to whether terrorists in Nigeria goal solely Christians or actually all faiths and no faiths, the variations, in the event that they exist, can be mentioned and resolved by the 2 leaders after they meet within the coming days, both in State Home or White Home.”
Bwala, who was talking on the telephone from Washington, declined to reveal particulars of any potential assembly.
Trump posted on Friday, with out proof, that “hundreds of Christians are being killed (and) Radical Islamists are chargeable for this mass slaughter.”
Nigeria has denied that Christians have been focused by jihadist assaults greater than different faiths.
“The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously illiberal doesn’t mirror our nationwide actuality,” Tinubu mentioned on social media Saturday.
