Trump's claims of Christian persecution in Nigeria bump up against facts
CBC
U.S. President Donald Trump's threat to go "guns-a-blazing" into Nigeria over what he claims to be deadly persecution of Christians is prompting pushback in the West African nation.
"Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria," Trump declared on social media over the weekend.
"Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter," Trump said, following it up with another post saying he was ordering the Pentagon to prepare for possible military action against Nigeria.
Amnesty International, the global non-governmental organization that monitors violations of human rights including religious freedoms, describes the long-running violence in northern Nigeria as "egregious crimes," but does not characterize it as religious persecution.
Isa Sunusi, executive director of the group's Nigeria program, says there's no evidence of a religious motivation behind the attacks.
"I don't think President Trump has any facts," Sunusi said in an interview with CBC News. "I don't think he has had a very good briefing about the nature of this conflict."
Sunusi says Nigeria is "bedevilled by" what he describes as jihadist groups.
"The jihadist groups kill both Muslims and Christians. They demolish mosques and churches. They don't differentiate."
The most prominent such group, Boko Haram, launched its insurgency in northeastern Nigeria back in 2009. Tens of thousands of people have since been killed or kidnapped, and estimates of those displaced run into the millions.
The group was founded on a strict interpretation of Islam. It views Muslims who work with any part of the Nigerian government and civil society as legitimate targets, according to Amnesty International's research.
"Boko Haram fighters killed politicians, civil servants, teachers, health workers and traditional leaders because of their relationship with secular authority," Amnesty said in a report at the height of the conflict in 2015.
"Christians living in the northeast were included in this category, but so were Islamic religious figures, from the leaders of sects to local imams."
According to Armed Conflict Location & Event Data, a U.S. research group, 52,915 civilians have been killed in targeted political assassinations in Nigeria since 2009, reported Agence-France Presse.
Data from the same organization for the period between 2020 and 2025 shows at least 389 cases of violence targeting Christians, resulting in at least 318 deaths, along with 197 attacks targeting Muslims, causing at least 418 deaths, AFP reported.
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