Nigeria’s presidential spokesperson welcomes US help ‘so long as it recognises our territorial integrity’.
Printed On 2 Nov 2025
Nigeria says it will welcome help from america 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 submit on Saturday, Trump mentioned 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, informed 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 could be higher outcomes in our joint resolve to combat terrorism,” Bwala added.
In his submit, Trump mentioned 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 non secular intolerance and defended his nation’s efforts to guard non secular freedom.
“Since 2023, our administration has maintained an open and energetic engagement with Christian and Muslim leaders alike and continues to deal with safety challenges which have an effect on residents throughout faiths and areas,” Tinubu mentioned 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 folks, 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 mentioned that whereas Christians have been killed, a lot of the victims have been Muslims.
‘No Christian genocide’
Whereas human rights teams have urged the federal government to do extra to deal with unrest within the nation, which has skilled lethal assaults by Boko Haram and other armed groups, specialists 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 occurring in Nigeria,” Bulama Bukarti, a Nigerian humanitarian lawyer and analyst on battle and growth, informed Al Jazeera. That is “a harmful far-right narrative that has been simmering for a very long time that President Trump is amplifying in the present day”.
“It’s divisive, and it is just going to additional improve 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 mentioned the Trump administration ought to work with Nigerian authorities to deal with the “frequent enemy”.
“That is exactly the second when Nigeria wants help, particularly navy help,” Obadare mentioned. “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.”
