- Genocide Claims False, African Union Tells Trump Over Nigeria Comments
- Warns Against Inflammatory Rhetoric
- Says Boko Haram’s First Victims Are Muslims, Not Christians
The African Union has dismissed claims by United States President Donald Trump that a genocide is taking place in northern Nigeria, following his recent threat of military intervention over alleged large-scale killings of Christians by jihadist groups.
Eko Hot Blog had earlier reports that Donald Trump had warned that Christianity in Nigeria faced an “existential threat,” accusing radical Islamist fighters of killing “Christians in very large numbers.”
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He further threatened that the United States would launch a swift and forceful attack on Nigeria if the government failed to curb the violence.
But the Chair of the African Union Commission, Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, rejected the claims during a press conference in New York on Wednesday, stating clearly that “there is no genocide in northern Nigeria.”
Youssouf cautioned against inflammatory statements on such a complex issue.
“The complexity of the situation in northern Nigeria should push us to think twice before making such statements,” he said.
He also noted that the primary victims of Boko Haram insurgents are Muslims, not Christians.
“The first victims of Boko Haram are Muslims, not Christians,” Youssouf stressed.
Nigeria, with a population of about 230 million people, is almost evenly split between a predominantly Christian south and a Muslim-majority north. The country continues to grapple with multiple security challenges, including long-running jihadist insurgencies that kill both Christians and Muslims indiscriminately.
The Boko Haram conflict, which began in 2009, has killed more than 40,000 people and displaced over two million, according to United Nations data.
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