Key Highlights
- But Donald Trump’s words bolster narratives of foreign ‘crusader’ aggressionThe response of Nigerians to the airstrikes against Islamic State (IS) targets in Sokoto state, north-western Nigeria are complicated.
- The rationale behind them has been widely opposed, but the strikes themselves have been welcomed. The airstrikes were framed as a response to what have been described as genocidal attacks on Christians in the country.
- But the Nigerian authorities have consistently rejected this narrative, arguing that armed groups in the country do not discriminate based on religion, and that Christians and Muslims largely coexist peacefully.
- Ironically, it was Trump’s redesignation of Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” in November that deepened Muslim-Christian tensions.
- Many northerners, who are predominantly Muslim, blamed southern Nigerians for championing a narrative that ultimately resulted in US sanctions and international stigma. The geographic and operational focus of the strikes has complicated the “Christian genocide” framing.
