"The US defence secretary, Pete Hegseth, has warned of new strikes against Islamic State targets in north-western Nigeria, hours after the US military took action against militant camps in what Donald Trump has characterised as efforts to stop the killing of Christians. Hegseth wrote on X: The president was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end. The [Pentagon] is always ready, so ISIS found out tonight on Christmas. More to come Grateful for Nigerian government support & cooperation. Merry Christmas!"
"Nigeria's foreign minister, Yusuf Tuggar, said on Friday that the US strikes, which came after Trump had accused Nigeria's government of failing to stop Christians being killed in the country, were part of joint ongoing operations. Nigeria is officially secular and its population is almost evenly split between Muslims (53%) and Christians (45%). Violence against Christians has drawn attention from the religious right in the US, which has framed it as persecution. Nigeria's government has pointed out that armed groups target Christians and Muslims."
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth warned of further strikes against Islamic State targets in north-western Nigeria after US forces struck militant camps, saying more action is coming. Donald Trump framed the action as efforts to stop the killing of Christians. Nigeria’s foreign minister Yusuf Tuggar said the strikes were part of joint, ongoing operations and that Nigeria provided the intelligence. Tuggar described conversations with US counterpart Marco Rubio and with President Bola Tinubu before authorising the action. US Africa Command said the strikes were carried out in coordination with Nigerian authorities. Nigeria noted that armed groups target both Christians and Muslims.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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