U.S. President Donald Trump took to Truth Social to announce the American military’s strikes on Islamic State militants in northwest Nigeria on Thursday. Previously, Trump had talked about such terrorist groups and their targeted attacks on Christians multiple times.
His post on Truth Social mentioned, “Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!”
The post added, “I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was. The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing.”
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In a now-deleted post on X, the U.S. military’s Africa Command claimed that the Nigerian authorities had requested the strikes. Though that post was deleted, it remains true that the strikes in Sokoto were completed in coordination with the Nigerian authorities.
Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth personally expressed his gratitude, saying he was “grateful for Nigerian government support + cooperation.” Nigerian authorities also talked about the strikes, mentioning that they were a part of an ongoing security cooperation with America. According to a post on X by the ministry, “This has led to precision hits on terrorist targets in Nigeria by air strikes in the North West.”
It should be noted here that though Nigeria happens to be a secular country with a roughly even population of Muslims (53%) and Christians (45%), there have been instances of more violence against the latter religious group, which has particularly drawn the attention of the religious right wing in the U.S.
While the American religious Right claims that these attacks are only carried out on the basis of religion, Nigeria’s government does not agree with that argument. According to them, both Christians and Muslims have been targeted by armed and violent groups in the past.
ISIS in Nigeria wasn’t supposed to get this far.
Trump just authorized U.S. military strikes on terror targets in the northwest.
West Africa is becoming a new frontline.
Are we paying attention enough? pic.twitter.com/G2H217ijJ3
— magic fingers (@KevinBradly4) December 26, 2025
However, despite not fully agreeing with the American authorities’ claim that Christians are being targeted in Nigeria because of their religion, the Nigerian government previously agreed to work with the U.S. to deal with the militant situation better.
While the U.S. is strictly viewing this as religious persecution, analysts have claimed that the situation is more complex than attacks being carried out just on the basis of religion. It should be noted here that there is a history of clashes between Muslim herders and Christian farming communities in certain parts of the land over access to land and water. Therefore, while pastors and priests have been kidnapped for ransom, some experts believe that those kidnappings have been fueled by criminal motivations rather than only religious bias.
Trump, however, clearly views the situation primarily as religiously motivated attacks and previously claimed that he would launch “guns-a-blazing” U.S. intervention in Nigeria as The Guardian reported. He also claimed that the Nigerian authorities were unable to deal with the situation better, which he said required U.S. intervention.
