In Nigeria, a divide over U.S. intervention

On Monday and Tuesday, suspected Fulani herders attacked farmers in their fields in the Ohimini region of Nigeria’s northcentral Benue state. Residents say at least four people are dead and several others missing.

Days earlier, U.S. President Donald Trump officially designated Nigeria a country of particular concern, a status given to nations that allow or commit “severe violations of religious freedom.” He also ordered the Pentagon to prepare for a possible intervention if authorities there fail to respond to Christian persecution in Nigeria. The move has sparked mixed reactions from Nigerians, who are calling on their own leaders to seek an end to the violence.

During his first term, Trump added Nigeria to the country of particular concern list, but the Biden administration reversed that decision a year later. On Wednesday, days after redesignating Nigeria, Trump said Christianity is facing an existential threat in the country. “The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria and numerous other countries,” he said. “We stand ready, willing, and able to save our great Christian population around the world.”

Nigerian officials are battling a mix of Islamist groups. Boko Haram and an Islamic State affiliate operate in the northeast, while armed bandits and radicalized Fulani herders who target mostly Christian farming communities operate in parts of the north and other areas of the country.

This year alone, Islamists have murdered more than 7,000 Christians—an average of at least 30 per day, according to the Nigeria-based nonprofit InterSociety. Kidnappers have also targeted Roman Catholic priests across the country, abducting at least 145 between 2015 and 2025.

The United States Africa Command has drafted a series of options to pass along to the Joint Staff at the Pentagon, according to The New York Times. The government could authorize airstrikes on militants concentrated in northern Nigeria. American forces could also team up with Nigerian troops to take back communities from terrorist control.

But the attention and threats so far have left some Nigerians wary of an Iraq War–style invasion. Azu Donatus, an Abuja-based business consultant, said he doubts the United States’ motives in intervening. “It’s not to our advantage,” he said, calling on Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to find a political solution instead.

Yet Alheri Magaji, whose majority-Christian Adara community in northwestern Kaduna state has faced repeated attacks from armed herdsmen, welcomed the international attention.

“It makes me feel seen and heard, like all our crying out was worth it,” she told me. “Even if it’s one life gone … it means a lot. Not to talk of whole villages being wiped out, people not being able to go back to their villages.”

Maureen Ferguson, a commissioner with the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, agreed that radical Islamic terrorists also target moderate Muslims. But she explained that the persecution of Christians is playing out on “a massive scale.”

Ferguson told WORLD the country of particular concern designation can put pressure on Nigerian authorities to act. “It gives the [U.S.] presidential administration a toolbox of various things that they can do to pressure or work with the country to increase freedom of religion for people on the ground there, whether it be sanctions or other diplomatic tools,” she said.

Alex Adekunle James, an Abuja-based analyst who also campaigns to stop the killings of Christians, said Nigerian authorities have been passive and complicit in quelling the violence. He argued that authorities have put more effort toward reintegrating repentant terrorists than supporting damaged and grieving communities.

“It’s of course an embarrassment that another country has to be threatening us and be putting so much effort for our government to do what is right,” he said.

Meanwhile, Nigerian authorities have rejected Trump’s claims, saying that the United States has misjudged the country’s security issues. “The report or notion that there is a Christian persecution or genocide in Nigeria is false,” Nigerian presidential adviser Daniel Bwala told Reuters.

Nigerian information minister Mohammed Idris said the government has intensified its talks with religious leaders, regional blocs, and international partners.

James said the renewed attention is already causing some changes. The Nigerian military began sharing more details of its operations in conflict areas on its X account. Zagazola, a security analysis group, reported that authorities in neighboring Chad have closed their border with Nigeria over concerns that fleeing terrorists could cross over.

James said he hopes to see the focus also extend to the millions of people displaced by violence.

“They’re so traumatized because they’ve witnessed their loved ones slaughtered,” he said. “We need to take care of them.”