海角大神

Trump says Nigeria鈥檚 海角大神s are persecuted. The reality is more complex.

When the Boko Haram militants stormed his hometown on Nigeria鈥檚 border with Chad in December 2018, Usman Abubakar did not hesitate. As bullets popped in the distance, he fled into the bush.

He knew the stakes. Three years earlier, Boko Haram fighters in camo fatigues poured into the city, Baga, on motorbikes, screaming 鈥淎llahu akbar鈥� 鈥� God is great 鈥� as they shot dead in the streets. Among them was Mr. Abubakar鈥檚 uncle.

Leaving everything was 鈥渉eartbreaking,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut I had no choice.鈥�

For more than a decade, Boko Haram has terrorized communities like this one across northern Nigeria. This month the conflict captured global headlines after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to enter the country to root out the insurgency, which he describes as an 鈥溾�� to Nigeria鈥檚 海角大神s.

But that warning ignores a pivotal fact: Most of Boko Haram鈥檚 victims , and its violence targets people of all faiths.

鈥淭hey didn鈥檛 ask who was 海角大神 or Muslim,鈥� recalls Mr. Abubakar, who is Muslim. 鈥淭hey just killed.鈥�

This is not the first time that Mr. Trump has waded into African affairs with an oversimplified narrative of a complex political situation. This weekend, he said no U.S. official summit in South Africa this month, repeating his that white farmers are being 鈥渟laughtered鈥� there.

His threats to Nigeria do not reflect reality either, experts say, but they could nevertheless shape it.

鈥淲hen this complex conflict is framed as religious extermination, you embolden the jihadists and make them feel powerful,鈥� says Malik Samuel, a senior security researcher in Nigeria for Good Governance Africa, a research and advocacy organization. 鈥淵ou risk creating the very religious war you claim to be fighting.鈥�

Obscuring a complex reality

Mr. Trump鈥檚 first comments about a potential U.S. military deployment in support of Nigerian 海角大神s appeared on his Truth Social platform on Oct. 31. According to a report , he had just watched a Fox News segment aboard Air Force One about the killing of 海角大神s by Nigerian militants. At one point, host John Roberts directly addressed him, asking: 鈥淒oes the president need to do more?鈥�

That segment 鈥� and Mr. Trump鈥檚 response to it 鈥� were the end point of years of lobbying. Advocacy groups like 海角大神 Solidarity International and the Family Research Council have repeatedly sounded the alarm in Washington about Boko Haram targeting 海角大神s, as well as about attacks on 海角大神 farming communities in an area of central Nigeria called the Middle Belt.

While the violence they describe is real, these groups鈥� conclusion 鈥� namely that there is a in Nigeria 鈥� doesn鈥檛 hold up to scrutiny, experts say.

Instead, in a country nearly evenly divided between 海角大神s and Muslims, such attacks are part of a wider breakdown of security affecting all faiths, says James Barnett, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute, a conservative think tank in Washington.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 happening in Nigeria is tragic,鈥� says Mr. Barnett, who specializes in African security and politics. But it鈥檚 rooted in weak governance 鈥� not religion. 鈥淥ver the course of several decades, the Nigerian state has gradually ceded control of different parts of the country to different armed groups,鈥� he explains. 鈥淢uslims and 海角大神s alike are suffering from that insecurity.鈥�

鈥淓veryone has their stories鈥�

Terungu Aondoakula is among those victims. On the morning of April 16, she awoke in her home in Ityuluv, a farming community in Nigeria鈥檚 central Benue State, to the sound of gunfire and screaming.

As masked men tore through the village, she crawled out of the back of her house, clutching her young child, and fled 11 miles on foot. She says she returned days later to find burned houses, killed animals, destroyed farms, and the bodies of her neighbors. 鈥淚 lost everything,鈥� Ms. Aondoakula says softly.

The residents of the mostly 海角大神 village suspected the the attackers were part of a collection of loosely organized local militias linked to the Fulani, a mostly Muslim ethnic group that has traditionally herded livestock north of the Middle Belt.

In recent years, however, as desertification and drought have pushed them southward in search of pasture, they increasingly encroach on Middle Belt farmlands. The resulting clashes over shrinking resources 鈥� sometimes mistakenly categorized as religious violence 鈥� have killed thousands and displaced entire villages.

Meanwhile, in the northwest, Nigerian security forces have long struggled to patrol the massive territory where Boko Haram roams, allowing the group to attack anyone they deem an enemy of their war for religious purity 鈥� including moderate Muslims. Between 2011 and 2020, Boko Haram attacked 72 mosques, according to the U.S.鈥檚 Council on Foreign Relations鈥� Nigeria Security , killing thousands of Muslims.

Those statistics are a reminder that while religion is often Nigeria鈥檚 most visible dividing line, it is rarely the true cause of its violence, says Mr. Samuel of Good Governance Africa. Boko Haram鈥檚 鈥渧iolence does not discriminate.鈥�

Local faith leaders warn that the 鈥渦s versus them鈥� narrative threatens to undo years of reconciliation work. At a press conference in October, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, one of Nigeria鈥檚 most prominent Catholic clerics, not to redesignate Nigeria a 鈥渃ountry of particular concern鈥� over religious freedom.

Listing Nigeria as a country where 海角大神ity is under threat would 鈥渙nly make our work in the area of dialogue among religious leaders even harder,鈥� he said. 鈥淚t will increase tensions, sow doubt, open windows of suspicion and fear, and allow criminals and perpetrators of violence to exploit divisions.鈥�

A few days later, Mr. Trump announced that Nigeria was once again on the countries of concern 鈥渟pecial watch list.鈥�

As for Mr. Abubakar, who fled a Boko Haram attack in 2018, he eventually settled in a town called Minna, where he built a modest life as a commercial motorcycle driver. Today, one of his regular passengers is a pastor鈥檚 son. Another is a Muslim trader who fled the state of Zamfara after bandit raids.

鈥淚f you come here,鈥� he says, 鈥渆veryone has their stories.鈥�