President Trump has issued a direct warning to the government of Nigeria that American intervention may be imminent following reports of yet another mass casualty terrorist attack on Christian communities in the country.
On Halloween, a new terrorist organization moved into Nigeria, announcing that it had executed its first operation, seizing a weapons cache and killing one regular Nigerian soldier in the process.
The group, an al-Qaeda-linked organization called Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) had previously only operated in territory west of Nigeria. A Nigerian jurist confirmed to Nerve News that JNIM had indeed attacked a Nigerian patrol.
This follows a string of attacks in October that have occurred roughly every few days and seemingly prompted Trump’s response this evening:
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” the president posted from his Truth Social account.
I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians! WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!”
As the violence in Nigeria escalates, attacks on Christians come from a number of Muslim factions. In the Nigerian Middle Belt, Muslim Fulani herder militias have been targeting the more sedentary Christian farmers in the region and in the North East, Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (two Islamist groups who are, themselves, fighting out a violent rivalry), target Christians and non-aligned Muslims alike.
In a manner not dissimilar to the conflict in Darfur, a dimension of these interactions can be described as a farmer-herder conflict, but the primary motive falls on the religious axis.
In the past year, recurrent mass-casualty events have taken the lives of hundreds of Christians. In April, gunmen killed at least 52 in just one of several raids that took place that month. In June, International Christian Concern logged over 80 murders.
