The President of the United States, Donald Trump, announced this Thursday that the Army of the North American country has launched a “deadly” attack against “the terrorist scum” of the Islamic State in northwest Nigeria.
“Tonight, under my direction as commander in chief, the United States launched a powerful and deadly attack against the Islamic State terrorist scum in northwest Nigeria, who have been brutally attacking and murdering (…) innocent Christians, at levels never seen in many years and even centuries!”, he noted on his Truth Social account.
The tenant of the White House has defended this order, claiming that “I previously warned these terrorists that if they did not stop the massacre of Christians, all hell would break loose.”
The Department of Defense, he stressed, “executed numerous (and) perfect attacks, as only the United States knows how to do.” “Under my leadership, our country will not allow radical Islamic terrorism to prosper,” he promised, before wishing Christmas “to everyone, including the dead terrorists.” These, he warned, “will be many more if the massacre of Christians continues.”
The head of the Pentagon, Pete Hegseth, has stressed on his X social network account that “the president was clear last month: the slaughter of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end.”
In this sense, he has assured that his portfolio “is always ready, as the Islamic State discovered tonight” and has thanked in the same message “the support and cooperation of the Nigerian Government”, while the Africa Command of the US Army (Africom) has specified in its X account that the attack was carried out “at the request of the Nigerian authorities in the state of Soboto, where several terrorists” of the jihadist group died.
“These deadly attacks against Islamic State demonstrate the strength of our Armed Forces and our commitment to eliminating terrorist threats against Americans, both at home and abroad,” Africom added.
The Nigerian Government has confirmed following Trump’s announcement that “precision airstrikes” have been carried out in the northwest of the country as part of its “security cooperation with international partners, including the United States, to address the persistent threat of terrorism and violent extremism.”
In a statement released on social networks, the Nigerian Foreign Ministry has indicated that this agreement with Washington “includes the exchange of intelligence, strategic coordination and other forms of support compatible with International Law, mutual respect for sovereignty and shared commitments to regional and global security.”
Thus, he has defended that “all” initiatives against terrorism are guided by “the priority of protecting the lives of civilians, safeguarding national unity and defending the rights and dignity of all citizens, regardless of their faith or ethnicity.”
“Terrorist violence, in any form, whether directed against Christians, Muslims or other communities, remains an affront to Nigerian values and international peace and security,” he added in this regard.
However, the diplomatic portfolio has indicated that it “continues to collaborate closely with its partners through established diplomatic and security channels to weaken terrorist networks, dismantle their financing and logistics, and prevent cross-border threats, while strengthening Nigeria’s security institutions and intelligence capabilities” and has assured that it will “continue” to do so and keep the population informed about it.
President Trump threatened in early November with military intervention in the African country and with the interruption of “all” aid to the Nigerian authorities, in response to the “murder of Christians” at the hands of “radical Islamists.” Then, the US president announced that he had designated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” citing the same reason.
Christian communities have been the target of attacks on numerous occasions in Nigeria but experts point out that the majority of victims of armed groups in the country are Muslims, since most of the attacks occur in the northern part of the country, with a Muslim majority.
Rescue of the kidnapped in November
This Thursday, the Catholic Diocese of Kontagora confirmed that all students and teachers at St. Mary’s Catholic School, in the Nigerian state of Niger, have been rescued and reunited with their families, after a latest rescue of 230 people, including 12 staff and 218 students.
The priest Bulus Yohanna, from the aforementioned diocese and owner of the school, has revealed these figures in a statement published by the newspaper ‘Vanguard’ in which he indicates that another 50 victims escaped shortly after the kidnapping, so the number of people reported missing, which was initially 315, was reduced to 265.
The kidnapping took place after the attack carried out by more than 60 armed individuals against this educational center that included a total of 629 students: 430 in primary school and 199 in secondary school.
Northeastern Nigeria is the epicenter of the activities of Boko Haram and its splinter, Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA), although in recent years insecurity has spread to other areas of the north and northwest, raising alarms about the possible expansion of criminal networks and gangs, with its consequent impact on the civilian population.
