{"id":170393,"date":"2025-11-02T20:47:01","date_gmt":"2025-11-02T20:47:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/no-christian-genocide-in-nigeria-govt-says-after-trumps-threats-al-jazeera\/"},"modified":"2025-11-02T20:47:01","modified_gmt":"2025-11-02T20:47:01","slug":"no-christian-genocide-in-nigeria-govt-says-after-trumps-threats-al-jazeera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/no-christian-genocide-in-nigeria-govt-says-after-trumps-threats-al-jazeera\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018No Christian genocide in Nigeria\u2019 gov\u2019t says after Trump\u2019s threats – Al Jazeera"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2018The killing of any Nigerian is a loss to the country\u2019 and \u2018not sanctioned by government\u2019, spokesman tells Al Jazeera.<\/em>
Trump threatens to launch attacks in Nigeria over \u2018killing of Christians\u2019
By <\/span>Al Jazeera Staff<\/a> and News Agencies
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Nigeria has said it would welcome assistance from the United States in fighting armed groups as long as its territorial integrity is respected after US President Donald Trump threatened military action<\/a> in the West African country over what he claimed was persecution of Christians there.
In a social media post on Saturday, Trump said he had asked the US Department of Defense to prepare for possible \u201cfast\u201d military action in Nigeria if Africa\u2019s most populous country fails to crack down on the \u201ckilling of Christians\u201d.
\u201cWe are not proud of the security situation that we are passing through, but to go with the narrative\u201d that only Christians are targeted, \u201cno, it is not true. There is no Christian genocide in Nigeria,\u201d Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, Nigeria\u2019s Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman, told Al Jazeera on Sunday.
\u201cWe\u2019ve continuously made our point clear that we acknowledge the fact that there are killings that have taken place in Nigeria, but those killings were not restricted to Christians alone,\u201d he added.
Responding to allegations that the Nigerian government allowed these killings to take place, Imomotimi Ebienfa said: \u201cThe killings are not sanctioned by the Nigerian government. The Nigerian government is seriously against that. The killing of any Nigerian in any part of the country is a loss to the country \u2026 The perpetrators of these killings are terrorist groups Boko Haram and other al-Qaeda and [ISIL] SIS-affiliated groups that are perpetuating this crisis.\u201d
A spokesperson for Nigeria\u2019s presidency, Daniel Bwala, told the Reuters news agency on Sunday that the country would \u201cwelcome US assistance as long as it recognises our territorial integrity\u201d.<\/span>
\u201cI am sure by the time these two leaders meet and sit, there would be better outcomes in our joint resolve to fight terrorism,\u201d Bwala added.
In his post, Trump said the US would immediately cut off all assistance to the country \u201cif the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians\u201d.
Earlier, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu pushed back against claims of religious intolerance and defended his country\u2019s efforts to protect religious freedom.
\u201cSince 2023, our administration has maintained an open and active engagement with Christian and Muslim leaders alike and continues to address security challenges which affect citizens across faiths and regions,\u201d Tinubu said in a statement.
\u201cThe characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians.\u201d
Nigeria, a country of more than 200 million people, is divided between the largely Muslim north and mostly Christian south.
Armed groups have been engaged in a conflict that has been largely confined to the northeast of the country and has dragged on for more than 15 years. Analysts said that while Christians have been killed, most of the victims have been Muslims.
While human rights groups have urged the government to do more to address unrest in the country, which has experienced deadly attacks by Boko Haram and other armed groups<\/a>, experts say claims of a \u201cChristian genocide\u201d are false and simplistic.
\u201cAll the data reveals is that there is no Christian genocide going on in Nigeria,\u201d Bulama Bukarti, a Nigerian humanitarian lawyer and analyst on conflict and development, told Al Jazeera. This is \u201ca dangerous far-right narrative that has been simmering for a long time that President Trump is amplifying today\u201d.
\u201cIt is divisive, and it is only going to further increase instability in Nigeria,\u201d Bukarti added, explaining that armed groups in Nigeria have been targeting both Muslims and Christians.
\u201cThey bomb markets. They bomb churches. They bomb mosques, and they attack every civilian location they find. They do not discriminate between Muslims and Christians.\u201d
Ebenezer Obadare, a senior fellow of Africa studies at the Washington, DC-based Council on Foreign Relations, agreed and said the Trump administration should work with Nigerian authorities to address the \u201ccommon enemy\u201d.
\u201cThis is precisely the moment when Nigeria needs assistance, especially military assistance,\u201d Obadare said. \u201cThe wrong thing to do is to invade Nigeria and override the authorities or the authority of the Nigerian government. Doing that will be counterproductive.\u201d<\/p>\n

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source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2018The killing of any Nigerian is a loss to the country\u2019 and \u2018not sanctioned by government\u2019, spokesman tells Al Jazeera.Trump threatens to launch attacks in Nigeria over \u2018killing of Christians\u2019By Al Jazeera Staff and News AgenciesShareSaveNigeria has said it would welcome assistance from the United States in fighting armed groups as long as its territorial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":170394,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-170393","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-us","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170393","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170393"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170393\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/170394"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170393"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170393"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170393"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}