Washington DC - President Donald Trump claimed Friday that Christians in Nigeria are facing an "existential threat," as he blamed Muslims for carrying out a "mass slaughter" and called on American lawmakers to investigate.
Concerns over a "Christian genocide" in Nigeria have previously been pushed by US members of Congress, but experts say that narrative obscures a more complicated reality on the ground in Africa's most populous nation, which has rejected such claims in the past.
"Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter," Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform, without providing evidence to support his claims.
Trump said he is naming Nigeria a "country of particular concern" – a State Department designation for nations "engaged in severe violations of religious freedom."
The US president also tasked two federal lawmakers with looking into the issue.
"The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!" Trump added.
Nigeria is almost evenly divided between a Muslim-majority north and a largely Christian south.
Its northeast has been in the grip of jihadist violence for more than 15 years by the Islamist Boko Haram group, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives and displaced two million people.
At the same time, large parts of the country's northwest, north, and center have been hit by criminal gangs known as "bandits" who attack villages, killing and kidnapping residents.
Experts push back at Trump's claims about Nigeria
Homes are regularly ransacked and then torched, with no apparent religious motive.
Clashes are also frequent between mostly Muslim herders and mainly Christian farmers over land and resources, particularly water, giving the conflict an air of religious tensions in a region that has seen sectarian violence in the past.
However, experts say the conflict in north central Nigeria is primarily over land, which is being squeezed by expanding populations and climate change.