President Donald Trump’s administration is advancing plans to work with the Nigerian government to curb violence against Christians, signaling a broader strategic approach after Trump ordered preparations for possible military action and warned that the United States could go in “guns-a-blazing” to confront Islamic militants.
A State Department official said last week that the emerging plans extend beyond potential military involvement, outlining a wider framework that includes diplomatic measures such as possible sanctions, alongside assistance programs and intelligence cooperation with Nigeria.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also met with Nigeria’s national security adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to explore strategies for ending the attacks, sharing photos of their meeting on social media.
His engagement stood in contrast to Trump’s threat this month to halt all aid to Nigeria if its government “continues to allow the killing of Christians.”
The initiative aligns with Trump’s pledge to avoid deeper U.S. entanglement in foreign conflicts, even as America’s security footprint in Africa has diminished due to scaled-back or canceled military partnerships. Any U.S. military intervention in Nigeria would likely require redeployment of forces from other global posts.
Despite that, the Republican president has maintained pressure as Nigeria grapples with a wave of assaults on schools and churches—violence that experts and locals say has struck both Christians and Muslims.
“I’m really angry about it,” the president said Friday when asked about the latest incidents on the “Brian Kilmeade Show” on Fox News Radio. He claimed that Nigeria’s government has “done nothing” and added, “what’s happening in Nigeria is a disgrace.”
The Nigerian government has rejected those assertions.
After his meeting Thursday with Nigerian national security adviser Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, Hegseth said in a social media post on Friday that the Pentagon is “working aggressively with Nigeria to end the persecution of Christians by jihadist terrorists.”
“Hegseth emphasized the need for Nigeria to demonstrate commitment and take both urgent and enduring action to stop violence against Christians and conveyed the Department’s desire to work by, with, and through Nigeria to deter and degrade terrorists that threaten the United States,” the Pentagon said in a statement.
Jonathan Pratt, who leads the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, told lawmakers Thursday that “possible Department of War engagement” is part of the broader plan, noting the issue has been under review by the National Security Council, the White House body responsible for advising the president on national security and foreign policy.
However, Pratt outlined a wide-ranging strategy at a congressional hearing on Trump’s recent decision to label Nigeria “a country of particular concern” for religious freedom violations, a designation that could trigger sanctions.
“This would span from security to policing to economic,” he said. “We want to look at all of these tools and have a comprehensive strategy to get the best result possible.”
Nigeria’s violence is significantly more complex than Trump has suggested, with extremist groups such as Boko Haram targeting both Christians and Muslims. Simultaneously, longstanding conflict between mainly Muslim herders and mostly Christian farmers over land and water persists. Armed bandits, driven largely by financial motives rather than religion, also continue to carry out ransom kidnappings, particularly at schools.
In two major school abductions last week, students were seized from a Catholic school on Friday, while others had been taken days earlier from a school in a Muslim-majority community. In a separate attack, gunmen killed two worshippers at a church and kidnapped several others.
The escalating crisis has drawn growing international attention. Rapper Nicki Minaj addressed a U.N. event organized by the U.S., saying, “no group should ever be persecuted for practicing their religion.”
If the Trump administration were to pursue an intervention, the U.S. withdrawal from neighboring Niger and forced eviction from a French base near Chad’s capital last year have left fewer American resources in the region.
Potential options include redirecting support from Djibouti in the Horn of Africa or from smaller, temporary hubs known as cooperative security locations. U.S. personnel operate at these sites for specific missions with countries such as Ghana and Senegal, though they likely lack the scale required for a major operation in Nigeria.
