Yusuf Tuggar, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria Photo: dts Nachrichtenagentur / imago stock&people / Profimedia
Nigeria is discussing security cooperation with the United States, which recently threatened to intervene militarily in the West African country, with President Donald Trump denouncing the “killings targeting Christians” committed by “Islamic terrorists”, Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told AFP, reports Agerpres.
“We are currently discussing how we can work together to address security challenges affecting the entire planet,” Yusuf Tuggar said in an interview in Abuja.
Earlier this month, President Trump said he had asked the Pentagon to develop a potential attack plan against Africa's most populous country because radical Islamists there are “killing Christians and killing them in very large numbers.”
Asked if he thought Washington would attack Nigeria, Tuggar said: “No, I don't think so.” “Because we continue to talk and, as I said, the talks have progressed. We have passed that stage” of threats, he told AFP.
Christianity “faces an existential threat” in the West African country, Trump said, adding that if Nigeria does not end the massacres, the United States will attack, and it will happen “quickly, violently and effectively.”
Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, with 230 million inhabitants, is divided almost equally between a predominantly Christian south and a predominantly Muslim north.
Nigeria is the scene of numerous conflicts in which both Christians and Muslims are killed, often without distinction.
In the northeast of the country, the jihadist insurgency led by the Boko Haram group (active since 2009) and its rival faction, the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP), has killed more than 40,000 people and forced more than two million to leave their homes, according to United Nations figures.
