The President of the United States, Donald Trump, has claimed that the U.S. military played a major role in ending the killing of Christians in Nigeria.
Mr Trump made the claim during an event in Washington on Friday, where he said American military intervention significantly reduced attacks on Christian communities in parts of Nigeria affected by insurgency and violent extremist activities.
“As you know, we recently struck Nigeria and largely ended the slaughter of great Christian populations,” he said.
According to the U.S. president, the situation before the alleged intervention was dire, with thousands of Christians, including women, children and the elderly, reportedly killed in violent attacks.
“They have a great Christian population. They were being butchered. Thousands and thousands of people were being killed—children, women, old people—just being slaughtered, hacked to death,” he said.
Mr Trump further claimed that the military action dealt a significant blow to those responsible for the attacks, discouraging further violence.
“They know that if they go further, the attack will be far greater, and 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,” he added.
Mr Trump did not provide details of the alleged military operation or specify when it took place. U.S. or Nigerian authorities have not publicly confirmed any military operation matching his description.
