United States President Donald Trump has claimed that military strikes authorised by his administration in Nigeria significantly reduced attacks on Christian communities and dealt a major blow to terrorist groups operating in the country.
Trump made the remarks during an event in Washington on Friday, where he highlighted what he described as the success of recent U.S. counterterrorism operations in Nigeria.
According to the U.S. president, the military action largely ended the mass killings of Christians in parts of Nigeria affected by insurgency.
"As you know, we recently struck Nigeria and largely ended the slaughter of great Christian populations," Trump said.
He alleged that thousands of Christians, including women, children and the elderly, had been brutally killed before the intervention, adding that the U.S. acted decisively to stop the violence.
Trump further claimed that the operation eliminated three top terrorist leaders, saying the strikes had severely weakened the groups responsible for the attacks.
"We hit them very hard. We knocked out their leader. We knocked out their second leader and their third leader," he said, adding that the operation served as a warning against future attacks.
The U.S. president also stated that his administration remains committed to protecting Christians around the world by taking military action against terrorist organisations wherever they operate.
"So I'm saving Christians throughout the world. We know where these terrorists are. We hunt them down, and we take them out," Trump added.
Trump's latest comments come months after the United States carried out airstrikes against terrorist targets in northwestern Nigeria in coordination with Nigerian authorities. However, Nigerian officials have consistently maintained that the country's security challenges affect both Christians and Muslims and are driven by terrorism, banditry and other forms of violent extremism rather than the targeted persecution of one religious group.
