Tuberville backs sending US troops into Nigeria to protect Christians

Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) said Wednesday that he would support President Trump should he follow through on his earlier threat to send U.S. troops into Nigeria to defend the country’s Christian population from Islamic extremists. 

Trump over the weekend threatened to mobilize American forces against Islamist terrorists killing Christians, blaming Nigeria’s leaders for failing to tackle the problem and labeling it a “country of particular concern” (CPC) because of religious violence.

“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, 'guns-a-blazing,' to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” Trump posted to Truth Social Saturday. “I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action.”

Asked Wednesday by Fox News reporter John Roberts whether he would support the use of U.S. troops in Nigeria, Tuberville replied, “You bet I would.”

Nigeria’s majority Muslim population has also faced violence and killing at the hands of Islamic extremists in the country, but there is no doubt that Christian communities have been hit hard, according to analysts.

The Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA), a Dutch-based charity advocating religious freedom on the continent, tracked attacks on civilians in Nigeria between 2019 and 2024, according to early findings released in July. 

The organization found that within the 36,056 civilian deaths during this period, there were 2.4 Christians killed for every Muslim.

Tuberville claimed the numbers were much higher, though he did not specify the time period he was referring to.

“Sixty-two thousand Christians killed in Nigeria, 100,000 killed in Africa, 18,000 churches burned. Now, there’s a lot of evidence there, and that’s probably an underestimate, John, but we cannot allow this to happen to people that can’t defend themselves,” Tuberville said.

He added: “It’s just absolutely insane. If we need to get involved in something like this, President Trump could end that in a heartbeat. This one wouldn’t be like going into Russia or China or North Korea or Iran. This would be going and helping innocent people that would be able to take back over their country. It’s a shame something like this happened, but we can’t overlook it. We can’t underestimate it.”

Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, meanwhile, has disputed Trump’s designation of the West African country as a CPC, saying in a social media statement on Saturday that religious freedom and tolerance “have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so.” 

“Nigeria opposes religious persecution and does not encourage it. Nigeria is a country with constitutional guarantees to protect citizens of all faiths,” Tinubu said.