Trump: Christians in Nigeria face 'existential threat'

(Patria) - US President Donald Trump says Christians in Nigeria face an "existential threat", as right-wing political allies, including Senator Ted Cruz, promote claims of "mass murder of Christians" that experts say are false, AFP reported.

Narratives of "Christian genocide" and "persecution" in Nigeria have emerged on social media in recent months, finding support among the American and European far-right.

Africa's most populous country is embroiled in numerous conflicts that experts say have killed both Christians and Muslims indiscriminately.

But, according to Trump, "Christianity faces an existential threat in Nigeria".

"Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter," he said in a post on his Truth Social platform, without providing evidence to support his claims.

Trump said he is designating Nigeria a "country of particular concern" - a State Department designation for nations "that engage in severe violations of religious freedom".

Claims of Christian persecution are also highlighted by some in Nigeria, where ethnic, religious, and regional divisions have flared with deadly consequences in the past and still shape the country's modern politics. Nigeria is almost equally divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south.

Its northeast has been gripped for more than fifteen years by the jihadist violence of the Islamist group Boko Haram, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives and displaced two million people.

The northwest is plagued by gangs known as "bandits" who attack villages, killing and kidnapping residents.

In central Nigeria, conflicts between predominantly Muslim herders and predominantly Christian farmers are frequent - giving the violence there a religious undertone, in a region that has witnessed sectarian violence in the past.

Experts say the conflict is primarily about land, which is shrinking due to population growth and climate change.

Indiscriminate violence

Massad Boulos, Trump's senior advisor for Arab and African affairs, stated in mid-October that Boko Haram and the Islamic State "kill more Muslims than Christians".

Ladd Serwat, a senior Africa analyst at the US monitoring group Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED), told AFP that the jihadist violence in Nigeria is "indiscriminate".

According to ACLED data, 52,915 civilians have been killed in targeted political killings since 2009, including those carried out by Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa, "ethnic/communal militias in the central and northern regions, violence by groups commonly described as 'bandits', and self-defense militias".

The data also showed that between 2020 and 2025, there were at least 389 incidents of violence targeting Christians, with at least 318 deaths. In the same period, there were 197 violent attacks on Muslims, with over 400 deaths.

Trump's comments come at a time when lobbying is underway on behalf of Nigerian separatists.

Moran Global Strategies, representing the Government of the Republic of Biafra in exile, wrote to US Congressional officials in March warning of "Christian persecution" in the country, according to documents revealed as part of US foreign lobbying regulations.

Biafra was the name of a short-lived secessionist state that declared independence in 1967, sparking a brutal civil war that lasted until 1970.