Nigeria’s government says it is in discussions with the United States following President Donald Trump’s recent threats of potential military intervention over the killing of Christians by jihadist groups in the country.
Foreign Affairs Minister Yusuf Tuggar disclosed this in an interview with AFP on Monday in Abuja, noting that both nations were engaging on broader security cooperation.
“What we are discussing is how we can collaborate to tackle security challenges that are in the interest of the entire planet,” Tuggar said.
At the beginning of November, Trump said he had asked the Pentagon to draw up a possible plan of attack in Africa’s most populous nation, accusing radical Islamists of “killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers”.
When asked whether he believed Washington would actually deploy the military, Tuggar replied: “No, I do not think so.”
“Because we continue to talk, and as I said, the discussion has progressed. It’s moved on from that,” he added.
Trump had also claimed that Christianity was “facing an existential threat” in the West African nation, warning that if Nigeria fails to stop the killings, the United States would strike and “it will be fast, vicious, and sweet”.
Nigeria, with a population of about 230 million people, is almost evenly split between a predominantly Christian south and a Muslim-majority north. The country continues to face multiple security crises, including jihadist insurgencies that have killed both Christians and Muslims.
AFP.
