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WASHINGTON/ABUJA: US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he has asked the Defense Department to prepare for possible “fast” military action in Nigeria if the West African nation fails to crack down on the killing of Christians.
The US government will also immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and top oil producer, Trump said in a post on Truth Social.
If the United States sends in military forces, it would go in “’guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump wrote, without providing any evidence of specifics about the treatment of Christians in Nigeria.
Trump called Nigeria a “disgraced country” and warned its government must move quickly. “If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!” he wrote.

Abuja had no immediate reaction to Trump’s threat of military action. The White House also had no immediate comment on the potential timing of any US military action.
Although the US Department of Defense referred Reuters to the White House for comment on Trump’s threat, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth released a social media post of his own.
“The Department of War is preparing for action,” Hegseth wrote on X. “Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
Trump’s post on Nigeria came a day after his administration added Nigeria back to a “Countries of Particular Concern” list of nations that the US says have violated religious freedom. Other nations on the list include China, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Pakistan.
Before Trump posted his attack threat, Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu earlier on Saturday pushed back against claims of religious intolerance and defended his country’s efforts to protect religious freedom.
“The characterization of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians,” Tinubu said in a statement, citing “constitutional guarantees to protect citizens of all faiths.”
Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry, in a separate statement, vowed to keep fighting violent extremism and said it hoped Washington would remain a close ally, saying it “will continue to defend all citizens, irrespective of race, creed, or religion. Like America, Nigeria has no option but to celebrate the diversity that is our greatest strength.”

The US military footprint in West Africa was significantly diminished when about 1,000 troops withdrew from Niger last year. While the US sometimes has small groups of troops in the region to take part in drills, the largest US military base on the continent is in East Africa in Djibouti, which hosts over 5,000 troops and is used for operations in the region.

Trump claims ’thousands’ were being killed
Trump had designated Nigeria a country of concern during his first term in the White House. His Democratic successor Joe Biden removed it from the US State Department list in 2021.
On Friday, Trump said “thousands of Christians” were being killed in Nigeria by radical Islamists, but offered no details.
Nigeria, which has 200 ethnic groups practicing Christianity, Islam and traditional religions, has a long history of peaceful coexistence, but it has also seen flare-ups of violence among groups, often exacerbated by ethnic divisions or conflict over scarce resources.
The extremist Islamist armed group Boko Haram has also terrorized northeast Nigeria, an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people over the past 15 years. Human rights experts have said most Boko Haram victims have been Muslims.
US lawmakers such as Representative Tom Cole, a Republican who chairs the US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, hailed Trump’s move on Friday, citing what they called “the alarming and ongoing persecution of Christians across the country.”
The committee’s fiscal 2026 national security appropriations bill included increased funding for international religious freedom programs and support for programs supporting communities in Nigeria targeted by extremist violence.
Trump’s re-designation of Nigeria as a country of concern opens the door to a range of policy responses such as sanctions or waivers, but they are not automatic.
Some religious groups pressed Trump for the re-designation in a letter last month, according to a copy on the Hudson Institute think tank’s website.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” Trump wrote without offering any specifics. He also called on the US House of Representatives Appropriations Committee to investigate. 

HUNTINGDON, United Kingdom: UK police said they had arrested two suspects Saturday as “a number of people” were taken to hospital and a “large-scale” emergency response was mobilized after a stabbing on a train in Cambridgeshire, eastern England.
“We are currently responding to an incident on a train to Huntingdon where multiple people have been stabbed,” British Transport Police said on X, adding that “two people have been arrested.”

Cambridgeshire police said: “A number of people have been taken to hospital.”
A witness described seeing a man with a large knife and told The Times newspaper there was “blood everywhere” as people hid in the washrooms.
Some passengers were getting “stamped (on) by others” as they tried to run, and the witness told The Times they “heard some people shouting we love (you).”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said the “appalling” incident was “deeply concerning.”
“My thoughts are with all those affected, and my thanks go to the emergency services for their response,” Starmer said in a statement on X.
“Anyone in the area should follow the advice of the police,” Starmer added, while his interior minister Shabana Mahmood confirmed two people had been taken into custody.

‘Multiple patients’

Armed police were at the scene after being alerted around 7:40 p.m. local time (1940 GMT) and the train was stopped at Huntingdon, a market town in east England, police said.
Dozens of emergency vehicles were deployed at the station, and people were being led away in space blankets, an AFP photographer saw.
Local ambulance services mobilized a “large-scale response” to the station including ambulances, air ambulances and tactical commanders.
“We can confirm we have transported multiple patients to hospital,” the East of England Ambulance Service said on X.
Train operator London North Eastern Railway (LNER) said all its railway lines had been closed while emergency services dealt with the incident at Huntingdon station.
LNER, which runs trains along the east of England and Scotland, urged passengers not to travel, warning of “major disruption.”
It serves major stops including in London, Peterborough, Cambridge, York and Edinburgh, and trains are often very busy, and packed with travelers.
The mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Paul Bristow said in a post on X: “Hearing reports of horrendous scenes on a train in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire,” adding that his “thoughts are with everyone affected.”

Knife crime

Knife crime in England and Wales has been steadily rising since 2011, according to official government data.
While Britain has some of the strictest gun controls in the world, rampant knife crime has been branded a “national crisis” by Starmer.
His Labour government has tried to rein in their use.
Nearly 60,000 blades have been either “seized or surrendered” in England and Wales as part of government efforts to halve knife crime within a decade, the interior ministry said Wednesday.
Carrying a knife in public can already get you up to four years in prison, and the government said knife murders had dropped by 18 percent in the last year.
Two people were killed — one as a result of misdirected police gunfire — and others wounded in a stabbing spree at a synagogue in Manchester at the start of October in an attack which shook the local Jewish community and the country.