Trump: Christians in Nigeria face an existential threat news

US President Donald Trump said on Friday that Christians in Nigeria face an “existential threat,” announcing his intention to include the West African country on the US State Department’s list of countries of “particular concern.”

In a post on his “Truth Social” platform, Trump noted that “thousands of Christians are being killed in Nigeria,” blaming what he called “extremist Islamists” responsible for what he described as a “massacre.”

The US President added that the United States “cannot stand idly by while such atrocities are committed,” stressing his country’s readiness to “protect Christians around the world,” according to what was reported by Reuters.

Trump explained that Nigeria, which is the largest oil producer and the most populous country on the African continent, will be included on the list of countries that Washington considers violating religious freedom, along with countries such as China, Russia, North Korea, Pakistan, and Myanmar, according to the US State Department website.

Trump said that he asked two members of Congress, along with the House Appropriations Committee, to look into this issue and submit a detailed report to him on it.

In another matter, the Nigerian writer Wole Soyinka, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, announced last Wednesday that the American consulate in Lagos had canceled his visa to the United States, in a move that some considered a response to his repeated criticism of Trump.

Soyinka said in a press conference: “I confirm to the consulate that I am completely satisfied with the cancellation of my visa,” noting that he was summoned earlier this year for an interview as part of the visa renewal procedures.

These developments come in light of the Trump administration’s strict immigration policy, which included canceling visas, especially for students who expressed their support for the Palestinian cause.

Last August, Foreign Policy magazine published a report in which it revealed Nigeria’s rejection of the American policy aimed at deporting immigrants from third countries to its territory.

The magazine quoted the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs as saying that her country “will not be a warehouse for refugees who have no connection to it,” stressing that Nigeria has enough internal challenges.