Nigeria’s presidential spokesperson welcomes US help ‘so long as it recognises our territorial integrity’.
Printed On 2 Nov 2025
Nigeria says it might welcome help from the USA in preventing armed teams so long as its territorial integrity is revered after US President Donald Trump threatened military action within the West African nation over what he claimed was persecution of Christians there.
In a social media put up on Saturday, Trump stated he had requested the Division of Protection to organize for doable “quick” navy motion in Nigeria if Africa’s most populous nation fails to crack down on the “killing of Christians”.
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A spokesperson for Nigeria’s presidency, Daniel Bwala, instructed the Reuters information company on Sunday that the nation would “welcome US help so long as it recognises our territorial integrity”.
“I’m certain by the point these two leaders meet and sit, there can be higher outcomes in our joint resolve to battle terrorism,” Bwala added.
In his put up, Trump stated the US would instantly lower off all help to the nation “if the Nigerian Authorities continues to permit the killing of Christians”.
Earlier, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu pushed again towards claims of spiritual intolerance and defended his nation’s efforts to guard spiritual freedom.
“Since 2023, our administration has maintained an open and energetic engagement with Christian and Muslim leaders alike and continues to handle safety challenges which have an effect on residents throughout faiths and areas,” Tinubu stated in a press release.
“The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously illiberal doesn’t replicate our nationwide actuality, nor does it take into accounts the constant and honest efforts of the federal government to safeguard freedom of faith and beliefs for all Nigerians.”
Nigeria, a rustic of greater than 200 million individuals, is split between the largely Muslim north and largely Christian south.
Armed teams have been engaged in a battle that has been largely confined to the northeast of the nation and has dragged on for greater than 15 years. Analysts stated that whereas Christians have been killed, many of the victims have been Muslims.
‘No Christian genocide’
Whereas human rights teams have urged the federal government to do extra to handle unrest within the nation, which has skilled lethal assaults by Boko Haram and other armed groups, consultants say claims of a “Christian genocide” are false and simplistic.
“All the info reveals is that there is no such thing as a Christian genocide happening in Nigeria,” Bulama Bukarti, a Nigerian humanitarian lawyer and analyst on battle and improvement, instructed Al Jazeera. That is “a harmful far-right narrative that has been simmering for a very long time that President Trump is amplifying right now”.
“It’s divisive, and it is just going to additional enhance instability in Nigeria,” Bukarti added, explaining that armed teams in Nigeria have been focusing on each Muslims and Christians.
“They bomb markets. They bomb church buildings. They bomb mosques, they usually assault each civilian location they discover. They don’t discriminate between Muslims and Christians.”
Ebenezer Obadare, a senior fellow of Africa research on the Washington, DC-based Council on Overseas Relations, agreed and stated the Trump administration ought to work with Nigerian authorities to handle the “widespread enemy”.
“That is exactly the second when Nigeria wants help, particularly navy help,” Obadare stated. “The unsuitable factor to do is to invade Nigeria and override the authorities or the authority of the Nigerian authorities. Doing that shall be counterproductive.”
