US President Donald Trump has claimed that missile strikes recently authorised by his administration in Nigeria helped stop attacks on Christian communities and weakened terrorist groups operating in the country.
Speaking at an event in Washington on Friday, Trump said the military operation significantly reduced the killings of Christians, whom he alleged had been targeted in large numbers.
“As you know, we recently struck Nigeria and largely ended the slaughter of great Christian populations,” he said.
Trump alleged that thousands of Christians, including women, children and the elderly, had been killed before the strikes.
“They have a great Christian population. They were being butchered… Thousands and thousands of people were being killed, children, women, old people, just being slaughtered, hacked to death,” he said.
