Pentagon Bombing of Nigerian Sokoto State Must be Condemned Despite Double-talk From Abuja Regime

By Al Mayadeen English

26 Dec 2025 09:46

Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry stresses that insecurity affects all communities, saying militancy, crime, and local conflicts drive the violence, as Washington cites religious motives for its actions.

Following US airstrikes on Thursday, Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry welcomed cooperation with Washington but stopped short of endorsing US President Donald Trump's claim that the operation was linked to the persecution of Christians.

Highlighting terrorism that has hit the country hard, the Ministry asserted that any such acts of violence affect all communities in the country.

“Terrorist violence in any form, whether directed at Christians, Muslims or other communities, remains an affront to Nigeria’s values and to international peace and security,” it said in a statement.

This comes as Trump, at the end of October, redesignated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” and threatened a “guns-a-blazing intervention", citing the killing and persecution of Christians by Islamic groups in the country. 

Long-time, cross-community violence

However, Nigeria has faced a deepening security crisis affecting all communities for years, with successive governments struggling to contain violence that has killed thousands of people of all ethnicities and led to mass abductions across the country.

In the north-east, Boko Haram and splinter groups such as Islamic State West Africa Province (Iswap) have waged an insurgency since 2009, leaving tens of thousands dead and forcing millions from their homes. In the north-west, heavily armed criminal gangs, often described as “bandits”, carry out kidnappings and raids that affect Muslim and Christian communities alike.

Nigerian officials have repeatedly said that the violence is not confined to one religious group. Last month, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu rejected the portrayal of Nigeria as a country defined by religious intolerance.

“Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so … Nigeria is a country with constitutional guarantees to protect citizens of all faiths,” he stressed.

Trump announces Christmas Day strikes

After weeks of accusing Nigeria’s government of failing to protect Christians, US President Donald Trump announced a series of strikes on the West African country on Christmas Day.

The attacks, which allegedly targeted Islamic State militants operating in northern Nigeria, represent Trump’s latest overseas military action, despite his 2024 campaign pledge to pull the US out of decades of “endless wars”.

In announcing the strikes, Trump claimed that they were aimed at Islamic State fighters who had been “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!”

A US defense department official told The Associated Press that the strikes were carried out in coordination with Nigeria and had been approved by its government.

Indeed, Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that the cooperation involved intelligence sharing and strategic coordination, yet it fell short of adopting Trump's religious persecution claims.

Why has Nigeria become a target?

For years, elements of the US right have amplified claims that Christians face systematic persecution in Nigeria. In September, Republican senator Ted Cruz urged sanctions against Nigerian officials who he said “facilitate violence against Christians and other religious minorities, including by Islamist terrorist groups."

Allegations of global anti-Christian persecution have become a powerful mobilizing issue for Trump’s political base, with evangelical Christians among his most loyal supporters.

Trump's designation of Nigeria a “country of particular concern” under the US International Religious Freedom Act followed sustained lobbying by Republican lawmakers and conservative Christian organizations. Shortly afterward, he instructed the Pentagon to begin preparing options for possible military action.

At the time, Trump warned that he might intervene “guns-a-blazing” if Nigeria continued to “allow the killing of Christians."

Taken together, these dynamics suggest that religion is rarely the sole or even primary driver, a distinction Nigerian officials have been keen to emphasize as Trump frames the strikes through the lens of Christian persecution.