US President Trump has threatened to send US forces into Nigeria with "guns-a-blazing" if Africa's most populous country does not stem what he described as the killing of Christians.
In an explosive post on his Truth Social platform on Saturday, the Republican leader said he asked the Pentagon to map out a possible plan of attack, one day after warning that Christianity was "facing an existential threat in Nigeria."
"If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, 'guns-a-blazing,'" he said.
"I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians," he added.
He ended his post with "WARNING: THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT BETTER MOVE FAST!"
Nigeria is embroiled in numerous conflicts that experts say have killed both Christians and Muslims without distinction.
Trump on Friday posted and claimed that "thousands of Christians are being killed,” and some radicals are responsible for this “mass slaughter."
Claims of Christian persecution have also been pushed by some in Nigeria, where ethnic, religious and regional divisions have flared with deadly consequences in the past and still shape the country's modern politics.
Nigeria is almost evenly divided between a Muslim-majority north and a largely Christian south.
___
Source: TRT