President Donald Trump in an interview with the New York Times last Thursday has warned that he could order follow up strikes against Nigeria if Christians continue to be killed in the country.
The US fired missiles at some targets in Sokoto State on Christmas day and there is little evidence that those missiles changed much about the insecurity that has plagued the country.
Trump said in the interview: “I’d love to make it a one-time strike. But if they continue to kill Christians it will be a many-time strike.” Many Nigerians reject the claim that Christians are specifically targeted and when this was put to Trump, he said: “I think that Muslims are being killed also in Nigeria. But it’s mostly Christians.”
A review of the Christmas Day strikes by British magazine Private Eye in its “Postcard from Abuja” noted that: “The evangelicals and MAGA in the US, and their Christian fundamentalist friends here [Nigeria], and their disgruntled political and contractor allies, were as disappointed as they had originally been delighted”.
The magazine added: “Days later, no reliable details of the impact of the strikes had surfaced”. It went on to provide some context: “There are Christians being killed – in the northeast and northwest by jihadists, although they mostly attack insufficiently compliant Muslims. Meanwhile in the so-called ‘Middle Belt’ there is a history of clashes between cattle herders and farmers; as well as Christian-on-Christian violence in the east. Kidnapping and organised crime are endemic.
“Some in Washington might see Africa as a faraway basket case. But even for a region that barely had a mention in the recent US national security review, there are vital interests. It wasn’t sentiment that persuaded the US to offer us drone support and targeted Tomahawk strikes…..there are substantial reserves of those much-in-demand critical minerals China has been courting, as well as oil and gas”.
The magazine ends with a critical point that has been missed by Trump and most of his supporters that have been peddling the Christian “genocide” claims against that “discredited country” (in the words of Trump): “Christians will not be secure until all Nigerians are safe”.
There’s precious little evidence of US missiles delivering security for all for those at the receiving end.
