A Nigerian pastor and other Christians have welcomed President Donald Trump’s pressure on the Abuja government to end the killing of Christians. The president recently identified Nigeria as a country of special interest and warned that he is considering cutting aid and imposing financial and other sanctions against government officials.
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Members of St. Leo Catholic Church hold a procession to mark Palm Sunday in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria on April 13, 2025. (Adekunle Ajayi/Getty Images)
Despite Secretary of War Pete Hegseth posting a warning earlier this month: “The War Department is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic terrorists who are committing these terrible atrocities,” Pastor Fred, whose church has been attacked several times by Islamic militants, is firmly against any outside military action.
“I find that quite uncomfortable, as a Nigerian, when I imagine soldiers coming in. It makes me very uncomfortable, but I feel even more uncomfortable about the fact that people are being slaughtered, and that the government is doing very little.”
Last month, President Trump wrote on Truth Social that three of the four Christians killed in the world in the past year, 3,100 of the 4,476 killed worldwide, were killed in Nigeria. These are the exact numbers that Open Doors published in their World Watchlist 2025. Open Doors is a global Christian charity that supports Christians who are persecuted for their faith.
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Youths are protesting the killings following a deadly attack by Fulani militants on Christian-majority villages in Benue State that left 218 people dead and 6,000 displaced. The protest took place in June 2025 in Benue State. (Open doors UK)
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom states that approximately 46% of the Nigerian population is Christian, and several sources claim that in Bishop’s Plateau State, 90% of the population is said to be Christian. Yet wave after wave of radicalized Muslim Fulani nomadic tribesmen have carried out repeated attacks on Christians there, often beheading children and seizing their land.
The Bishop noted: “The challenge we have is that Fulani militants come to kill without anyone stopping them. They kill with impunity. You call the security service (Nigerian authorities). When they come, they come too late – after people have been killed and after houses have been burned down.”
In December 2023, the bishop said his experience was typical of “They [Fulani militants] 17 people killed. We thought it was over. While we were going to do the funeral, they attacked more than 25 villages in Plateau State, killing more than 100 people, including children.”
The bishop is grateful for President Trump’s intervention: “The Christians here feel that this development is right. Someone [in Washington] is monitoring, someone is watching, someone is observing what is happening in Nigeria, and we think this will put pressure on the government. We want to make sure that the security forces start doing what they need to do.”
Funerals for about 27 Christians allegedly killed by Islamist Fulani tribesmen in Bindi Ta-hoss village, Nigeria. (Courtesy: Christian Solidarity International (CSI))
“The Nigerian government has not shown much concern for the fate of these people,” the lawyer added. He hoped “that the US will act in various ways to liberate the minority Christians from the hegemony of the Fulani militants.”
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The Minister continued: “Nigeria is a multi-faith country where communities of different beliefs have coexisted for centuries. The Government continues to confront violent extremism in all its forms, whether motivated by ideology, criminality or ethnicity, and works closely with regional and international partners to ensure peace and stability across our borders. Any external engagement in this area must be based on facts, mutual respect and partnership, rather than on perception or misinformation.”
