Nigeria has said that it would welcome assistance from the United States in fighting armed groups as long as its territorial integrity is respected.

This comes in response to US President Donald Trump’s threat of military action in the West African country over what he claimed was persecution of Christians there.

In a social media post on Saturday, Trump disclosed that he had asked the Department of Defense to prepare for possible “fast” military action in Nigeria if Africa’s most populous country fails to crack down on the “killing of Christians”.

In his post, Trump said the US would immediately cut off all assistance to the country “if the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians.”

Trump’s threat of military action came a day after his administration added Nigeria back to a “Countries of Particular Concern” list of nations that the US says have violated religious freedoms. Other nations on the list include China, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Pakistan.

A Spokesperson for Nigeria’s presidency, Daniel Bwala, told a news agency today, Sunday, November 2, 2025, that the country would “welcome US assistance as long as it recognises our territorial integrity.”

Bwala sought to play down tensions between the two states, despite Trump calling Nigeria a “disgraced country.”

“I am sure by the time these two leaders meet and sit, there would be better outcomes in our joint resolve to fight terrorism.”
Daniel Bwala

Earlier, Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu pushed back against claims of religious intolerance and defended his country’s efforts to protect religious freedom.

Tinubu said in a statement that since 2023, his administration has maintained “an open and active engagement with Christian and Muslim leaders alike and continues to address security challenges which affect citizens across faiths and regions.”

“The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians.”
Bola Tinubu

Nigeria, a country of more than 200 million people, is divided between the largely Muslim north and mostly Christian south.

Armed groups have been engaged in a conflict that has been largely confined to the northeast of the country and has dragged on for more than 15 years. Analysts said that while Christians have been killed, most of the victims have been Muslims.

In central Nigeria, there have been frequent clashes between mostly Muslim herders and mainly Christian farmers over access to water and pasture, while in the northwest of the country, gunmen routinely attack villages, kidnapping residents for ransom.

Claims Of Christian Genocide In Nigeria Deemed False

Experts say that claims of a “Christian genocide” are false and simplistic, even though human rights groups have urged the government to do more to address unrest in the country, which has experienced deadly attacks by Boko Haram and other armed groups.

Bulama Bukarti, a Nigerian humanitarian Lawyer and Analyst on conflict and development, told a news agency that all the data reveals is that there is “no Christian genocide going on in Nigeria.”

Bukarti noted that this is “a dangerous far-right narrative that has been simmering for a long time that President Trump is amplifying today.” “It is divisive, and it is only going to further increase instability in Nigeria,” the Analyst added, explaining that armed groups in Nigeria have been targeting both Muslims and Christians.

“They bomb markets. They bomb churches. They bomb mosques, and they attack every civilian location they find. They do not discriminate between Muslims and Christians.”
Bulama Bukarti

Research from US crisis-monitoring group ACLED shows that out of 1,923 attacks on civilians in Nigeria so far this year, the number of those targeting Christians because of their religion stood at 50.

Ladd Serwat, Senior Africa Analyst at ACLED said that recent claims circulating among some US right-wing circles that as many as 100,000 Christians had been killed in Nigeria since 2009 are not supported by available data.

Security experts said any US airstrikes would most likely seek to target small groups scattered across a very large swathe of territory, a task that could be made more difficult given the US withdrew its forces last year from Niger, which borders Nigeria in the north.