United States President, Donald Trump, has claimed that US military action played a major role in ending attacks against Christians in Nigeria.
Trump made the remark on Friday during an event in Washington, where he highlighted what he described as his administration’s efforts to combat terrorism and protect vulnerable populations around the world.
Speaking about Nigeria, the US president said American intervention helped curb violence allegedly targeted at Christian communities in areas affected by insurgency and extremist attacks.
“As you know, we recently struck Nigeria and largely ended the slaughter of great Christian populations,” Trump said.
He described the situation before the alleged intervention as devastating, claiming that thousands of people, including women, children and the elderly, had been killed in violent attacks.
“They have a great Christian population. They were being butchered. Thousands and thousands of people were being killed — children, women, old people — just being slaughtered, hacked to death,” he stated.
Trump further claimed that those responsible for the attacks had been severely weakened following the operation.
“They know that if they go further, the attack will be far greater. We hit them very hard. We knocked out their leader. We knocked out their second leader and their third leader,” he said.
The US president, however, did not provide details of the alleged military operation, including when it took place, the groups targeted, or whether it was conducted independently by the United States or in collaboration with Nigerian authorities.
As of the time of filing this report, the Nigerian government and security agencies had not officially responded to Trump’s claims.
