United States (U.S) President Donald Trump has claimed that targeted U.S military operations have “largely ended” the killings of Christians in Nigeria.
Speaking to a crowd of religious conservatives at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s annual Road to Majority conference in Washington, Trump credited recent American counterterrorism strikes with crippling the leadership of extremist groups operating in the West African nation.
During his address, Trump emphasized his administration’s global security operations, specifically focusing on what he described as a severe humanitarian crisis in Nigeria before U.S involvement.
According to the U.S President, American intervention in Nigeria played a major role in halting the killings of Christians.
“As you know, we recently struck Nigeria and largely ended the slaughter of great Christian populations.
He described the situation before the alleged intervention as severe, claiming that thousands of innocent people, including women, children, and the elderly, had been killed in brutal attacks.
“They have a great Christian population. They were being butchered, butchered thousands and thousands of people were being killed, children, women, old people, just being slaughtered, hacked to death.
Trump added that the alleged military action significantly weakened those responsible for the attacks.
“They know that if they go further, the attack will be far greater and that they don’t want to really get involved anymore so much. We hit them very hard. We knocked out their leader. We knocked out their second leader and their third leader.”
Trump’s remarks follow a series of highly publicized military operations conducted over the past several months.
In December 2025, the U.S. military launched precision Tomahawk missile strikes from the Gulf of Guinea targeting Islamic State (IS) and Lakurawa militant compounds in northwestern Nigeria.
Also, in May 2026, American and Nigerian special forces launched a coordinated campaign in northeastern Nigeria. The operation resulted in the elimination of Abu Musab al-Minuki, a senior leader within the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), alongside over 170 militants.
Recall also that in October 2025, the Trump administration officially designated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) due to systemic threats against religious freedoms.
