Donald Trump has announced that the US military has launched strikes against ISIS targets in Nigeria after accusing the group of targeting Christians.
The US president said his Department of War had carried out “numerous perfect strikes” and that the US would “not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper”.
“May God Bless our Military, and MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues,” he added.
It is the latest round of military action by the US, following weeks of military buildup and strikes on boats around Venezuela’s Caribbean coast, casting increasing doubt over the President’s claim to be the “President of Peace”.
The Independent takes a look at why Trump has decided to strike Nigeria and what the reaction has been.
How did the US strike Nigeria?
The US military targeted Islamic State militants in northwestern Nigeria in a major escalation.
Nigeria's overstretched military has struggled to contain Islamic terrorism for years.
The strikes were carried out in the strikes in Sokoto state, one of the areas where Nigeria is battling multiple armed groups. Lagos said the US strikes were part of an exchange of intelligence and strategic coordination between the two countries.
Officials did not say exactly which group was targeted, but security analysts said the target was likely members of a militant group called Lakurawa, which became more lethal in border states like Sokoto and Kebbi in the last year, often targeting remote communities and security forces.
Why has Trump decided to strike Nigeria?
Trump said the strikes were against Islamic State militants he claimed were "targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians."
The security crisis in Nigeria is affecting both Christians, predominant in the south, and Muslims, who are the majority in the north, residents and security analysts told The Associated Press.
The armed groups in Nigeria include two affiliated with the Islamic State. They include an offshoot of the Boko Haram group known as the Islamic State West Africa Province in the northeast, and in the northwest, the lesser-known Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) known locally as Lakurawa.
Lakurawa militants, who have been active in northwest Nigeria since around 2017 after being invited by authorities in Sokoto to protect against bandit groups, have now "overstayed their welcome, clashing with some of the community leaders ... and enforcing a harsh interpretation of sharia law that alienated much of the rural population," says James Barnett, an Africa researcher with the Washington-based Hudson Institute.
MAGA claims a ‘Christian genocide’ is taking place
The strikes come after months of accusations from Maga figures in the US that a genocide against Christians was taking place in Nigeria.
Trump threatened earlier this year that he would stop US aid to Nigeria and send in US troops “guns-a-blazing” if it “continues to allow the killing of Christians”.
Even rapper Nicki Minaj came out in support of defending Christians in Nigeria, when she said: "In Nigeria, Christians are being targeted. Churches have been burned, families have been torn apart... simply because of how they pray."
But the Nigerian government pushed back against claims, describing them as "a gross misrepresentation of reality".
Nigerian president Bola Ahmed Tinubu said: “The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality.”
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