President Trump has vowed to protect Nigeria’s persecuted Christians, creating tension in Abuja and placing Africa’s most populous nation in the unpredictable focus of his administration.

Over the weekend, Trump issued a stern warning to deploy American forces against Islamist extremists targeting Christians. He criticized Nigerian leaders for their inadequate response to the violence, labeling Nigeria a “country of particular concern” (CPC) due to ongoing religious strife.

This designation requires the president to engage with the Nigerian government, formulate a foreign policy strategy, and discuss its execution with Congress — all within a 90-day timeframe.

Trump further warned that without significant progress, the U.S. might withdraw aid and support from Nigeria.

What you need to know:

Christian right has lobbied for CPC designation

The CPC designation represents a significant achievement for advocates who have fervently campaigned for U.S. intervention to protect Christians in Nigeria.

“It was unexpected, it was even a toss-up til the end,” said Nina Shea, senior fellow and director of the Center for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, who met with administration officials late last month.

“There was no decision at the beginning of the week. By the end of the week, there was a decision, it was not really anticipated that he would designate it or when he would designate it, although he had to, under law, by the end of the year.”

Shea helped lead a group of more than 30 advocates, Christian organizations and conservative think tanks to send a letter to the administration on Oct. 15 calling for Nigeria to be designated a CPC. This was on top of celebrity advocacy from comedian Bill Maher and Grammy-nominated musician Nicki Minaj.

“Thank you to The President & his team for taking this seriously,” Minaj wrote on the social platform X, responding to Trump’s Oct. 31 decision to label Nigeria a CPC. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz invited Minaj to discuss the issue when she’s in New York City. 

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has been among the loudest voices in Congress lobbying on behalf on Nigeria’s Christians, introducing a bill in September that would sanction Nigerian officials deemed complicit in the violence.

When announcing the new designation, Trump asked Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.), an outspoken advocate of Nigeria’s Christians, to look into additional measures the U.S. might take “and report back to” him.

Threat of military intervention stirs concern

Trump’s threat of military action is an escalation beyond what some advocates were pushing for, but it comes as he has suggested armed interventions in South America targeting drug cartels. 

“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,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump posted Saturday on Truth Social. 

Richard Ghazal, executive director of In Defense of Christians, said Trump’s “mention of kinetic operations concerns” him “a bit.” 

Ghazal said he believes the president is drawing a line between moves that threaten the stability of the Nigerian government and taking action against terrorist groups. 

Ghazal, along with other conservative groups and Christian organizations, met with administration officials on Oct. 29, pushing for Nigeria’s designation as a CPC to motivate the Nigerian government to take firm action. 

“I’m not a hawk, I hate the idea of war,” Ghazal continued. “I think it absolutely should always be the last option, we want it to be the last option. We hope the Nigerian government allows the world to move on and not even have to think about it because they take care of their own issue domestically, because that is what their job is as a sovereign government.”

Still, Ghazal said that surgical, targeted military strikes against terrorist groups in Nigeria could fall under the justification of the responsibility to protect, enshrined in the United Nations, that compels the international community to address atrocities in states where their national government fails to take action. 

“If a sovereign government is not able to protect its own population group from atrocity, which is very much what’s happening in Nigeria, then it’s the international community’s responsibility to go in there in a limited capacity, not intending to destabilize the legitimate government, but to do so in a way to protect the unprotected group,” Ghazal said. “And I think this is a textbook case of that.”

Advocates for protecting Christians in Nigeria say Boko Haram and other Islamist terrorist groups are just one aspect of the significant threats facing Christians in the country. 

The Nigerian government’s enforcement of Islamic blasphemy laws, which carry the death penalty and harsh prison sentences, affect citizens of various religions, advocates raised in their Oct. 15 letter. 

“Militant Fulani Muslim herders” attack Christians with impunity, the letter states. “It [Abuja] fails to investigate the Fulanis’ organizational structures and identify who is arming them,” it adds.

“The authorities don’t enforce the country’s gun bans against the Fulani. They don’t act to reclaim the stolen farms for their Christian owners, who are instead consigned to destitution in internally displaced camps that receive little, if any, government assistance. They rarely arrest and never convict Fulanis who attack Christians. Even when warned of impending Fulani attacks, government security forces are typically unresponsive or ineffective.”

Christians have faced ‘violence and danger’ for years

Analysts point out that Nigeria’s majority Muslim population has also faced violence and killing at the hands of Islamic extremists operating in the country. But there is no doubt that Christian communities have been hit hard.

The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA), a Dutch-based charity advocating religious freedom on the continent, released in July early findings documenting attacks on civilians and Christians in Nigeria between 2019 and 2024. 

Of 36,056 civilian deaths, the Fulani Ethnic Militia was responsible for 47 percent of all civilian killings, more than five times the combined death toll of Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province, which together accounted for just 11 percent of civilian deaths, the ORFA stated. 

There were 2.4 Christians killed for every Muslim during this period, the group said. In states where attacks occur, Christians were murdered at a rate 5.2 times higher than Muslims relative to their population size. 

Open Doors, an international organization dedicated to helping Christians, said in its 2025 World Watch List report that “very little” has changed for Christians in Nigeria, particularly those living in the Muslim-majority north, enduring “violence and danger for their faith.” 

It documented 3,100 Christians killed and 2,830 abducted, but it cautioned those numbers must be understood as minimum figures as many incidents go unreported. 

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Saturday reacted to Trump’s threats by saying the country is “governed by constitutional guarantees of religious liberty.”

“Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so. Nigeria opposes religious persecution and does not encourage it,” he said in a statement.

“Our administration is committed to working with the United States government and the international community to deepen understanding and cooperation on protection of communities of all faiths.”

Updated at 8:24 p.m. EDT