Nigerian Christians react to U.S. bombings of ISIS targets

The Trump administration has followed through on an earlier warning to use military force to protect Nigerian Christians if the Nigerian government failed to do so.

On Christmas Eve, the U.S. military bombed ISIS targets in Nigeria’s Sokoto State in an action the U.S. leader described as “powerful and deadly,” although the number of casualties is not known.

“Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief,” said Trump, “the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries! Trump wrote on his Truth Social.

The U.S. leader said the military operation was the fulfillment of a prior warning to terrorists. He stated he had cautioned them that there would be severe repercussions for the “slaughtering of Christians,” and he characterized the night’s events as the delivery of those consequences. Trump credited the Department of War for conducting what he described as “numerous perfect strikes,” and reaffirmed his administration’s zero-tolerance policy towards “Radical Islamic Terrorism.”

Specific strikes with cooperation between U.S. and Nigeria

Emeka Umeagbalasi, director of International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety), noted that the Trump administration had issued two specific demands: first, that Nigerian officials “double their efforts to practically show that it is working hard to stop egregious and grisly attacks against Christians and their sacred places of worship,” and, second, that “various Islamic jihadist groups that have flooded and infiltrated into Nigeria and occupied thousands of forest locations” leave the country.

He told CWR that the recent strikes specifically targeted ISIS-linked jihadist groups and not the Nigerian government or its territory.

“The American government is not at war with the Nigerian government. Neither is it at war with Nigeria as a whole. It is only targeting those jihadist groups and their hideouts,” Umeagbalasi explained.

He said the strikes follow a pattern of U.S. action against terrorist hideouts in other sovereign states, including Somalia and Syria, suggesting that international law permits such interventions when a state is “unable or unwilling” to address threats to civilian populations.

The Nigerian government has acknowledged the strikes, stating that they “followed continued security and intelligence sharing and cooperation between the United States and the Nigerian government.”

Umeagbalasi argues that the U.S. intervention is legally justified under international law, particularly the Genocide Convention of 1948 and the ICC statute of 1998.

 “Under the Genocide Convention of 1948, sovereignty is not an excuse for the perpetuation of such jihadist attacks,” he told CWR.

The rights activist claims that multiple militant groups operating in Nigeria are now linked to ISIS, including “Jihadist Fulani militants, Jihadist Fulani bandits, Bororo’s Fulani jihadists, JNIM, the Sahelian-based terror group that recently established a brigade in Nigeria, Boko Haram, and so on.”

Earlier this year, President Trump designated Nigeria a “country of particular concern” under the U.S. International Religious Freedom Act, citing what he described as “genocide” against Christians.

Subsequently, he ordered the Pentagon to prepare for potential military action, stating that he might consider intervening “guns-a-blazing” if the Nigerian government continued to “allow the killing of Christians.”

Many positive reactions in Nigeria

The U.S. air strikes have sparked broad acceptance across Nigeria, particularly among Catholic leaders.

Fr. Humphrey Boyo of Taraku Parish in the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi told CWR that the strike was “a big sigh of relief to the Christians as it created a sense of hope for a better country.”

“If such efforts are maintained, then the terrorists will certainly surrender one day,” he said. He said the U.S. strikes were “a welcome development that aimed at giving value and dignity to human life. Therefore, the source of defense is not really important.”

Fr. George Dogo, a Nigerian Catholic priest from the Diocese of Wukari, Taraba State, known for speaking out about the ongoing violence and displacement affecting Christian communities in the region, told CWR that “there had been jubilation” in Wukari following the strikes, which he described as “a great action.”

Fr. Moses Aondover Iorapuu, a senior Nigerian church leader, told CWR that his country “stands no chance against the jihadists” without U.S. military support.

Welcoming the strikes as “pre-emptory,” Fr. Iorapuu explained that his diocese had already rescheduled Christmas Masses based on credible threats. He expressed confidence in the U.S. action, adding that “when President Donald Trump says something, he means it,” and warned that the jihadists have “infiltrated the political class.”

Such infiltration, according to Umeagbalasi, was fostered by then Nigerian President, Muhammadu Buhari, who filled the country’s military and administration with his Fulani tribesmen with the express aim of persecuting Christians.

“That is why the Nigerian military has become a jihadist military,” he said.

Umeagbalasi also raised concerns about media coverage of religious violence in Nigeria, suggesting a bias in reporting.

 “Whenever Muslims are targeted… the level of media publicity will be so high… But when Christians are killed … the same media will not report it,” he claimed.

While emphasizing that his organization opposes attacks on any religious group, Umeagbalasi suggested that U.S. intervention is necessary to prevent a larger humanitarian catastrophe.

“Nigeria is a country with a very large population- 280 million people. And if you fail to take this type of preventive action, then definitely you are leaving the country with no option but to implode into complex humanitarian emergencies or catastrophes,” he warned.

Nigeria has, since 2009, been reeling from terrorist attacks when Boko Haram started its campaign to establish a caliphate across the Sahel. Statistics from Intersociety indicate that since then, at least 185,000 Nigerians have been killed, including 125,000 Christians and 60,000 moderate Muslims.

The Nigerian government has pushed back at Trump’s claims that the killings in Nigeria are genocide against Christians, arguing that Muslims are also killed by terrorists.

Prelates and campaigners in Nigeria have insisted that Christians are facing a genocide in the African country, a point made even more poignant by the Pontifical Charity, Aid to the Church in Need, which has classified Nigeria as one of the most dangerous places for a Christian to live.

Fr. Boyo believes a sustainable solution to the crisis will come if sustained pressure is brought to bear on the Nigerian government to open up the political space where leaders will be held accountable.

“A long-term solution is to pressure the Nigerian government to amend electoral laws that will make elections credible, and people’s votes to be counted.. If we elect leaders, we will make them account for their actions,” he told CWR.