United States President Donald Trump has claimed that American military operations helped end the killing of Christians in Nigeria.
Trump made the assertion on Friday while speaking at an event in Washington, where he highlighted his administration’s security operations and counterterrorism efforts around the world.
According to the US President, military action carried out by the United States played a significant role in stopping attacks targeting Christian communities in Nigeria, particularly in areas affected by insurgency and extremist violence.
“As you know, we recently struck Nigeria and largely ended the slaughter of great Christian populations,” Trump said.
He described the security situation before the alleged intervention as dire, claiming that thousands of Christians, including women, children and the elderly, had been killed.
“They have a great Christian population. They were being butchered, butchered. Thousands and thousands of people were being killed—children, women, old people—just being slaughtered, hacked to death,” he said.
Trump further claimed that the military operation dealt a major blow to those behind the attacks.
“They know that if they go further, the attack will be far greater and that 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.
The US President did not provide further details about the alleged operation, including when it took place or the specific groups targeted.