Legacy media outlets downplayed Christian persecution in Nigeria after President Donald Trump’s administration struck anti-Christian ISIS terrorists in the country.
Trump wrote in an Oct. 31 Truth Social post that 3,100 Christians were killed in Nigeria, compared to 4,476 globally, citing an Open Doors report that recorded deaths for the 12 months from October 2023, a White House official said, according to the BBC. Yet legacy media outlets suggested Christian persecution was not a significant issue compared to attacks on Muslims following the strikes Trump announced on Truth Social Thursday.
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For instance, Sky News Africa correspondent Yousra Elbagir went on “MS NOW Reports” on Friday to refute the existence of Christian persecution.
“Now, the Nigerian government has come out and acknowledged publicly that they were working with the U.S. in these strikes, that there was security cooperation,” Elbagir said. “But their officials have also had to reiterate that they are not focusing on the protection of one religious group over the other. The Nigerian government has insisted that Christians are not being disproportionately targeted by terrorists in Nigeria, and the data just doesn’t back that up either.”
“Trump has been repeating these claims, apparently to appease his far right evangelical Christian base who have long condemned the targeting of Christians in Nigeria,” she continued. “But having been in Nigeria and been in communities that are targeted by Boko Haram and by ISWAP [Islamic State West Africa Province], I’ve seen for myself that these communities are often Muslim, that there’s no discrimination between Christians and Muslims. And just on Christmas Eve, a bomb exploded in a mosque in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State, killing at least five people who were there to worship.”
Radical Islamist terrorists from northern Nigeria — including ISWAP, Boko Haram and the Fulani ethnic militia — have carried out almost daily murders, kidnappings and robberies targeting Christians and nonradical Muslims in the nation’s Middle Belt.
Furthermore, over 7,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria in 2025 as of Aug. 10, according to the International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law.
The BBC published a piece on Friday titled, “Are Christians being persecuted in Nigeria as Trump claims?” The outlet cited sources that cast doubt on the significance of anti-Christian attacks, including data on deaths.
The BBC also referenced political violence monitoring organizations who said the majority of those targeted by jihadist groups were Muslims. It cited Nigerian security analyst Christian Ani, who acknowledged there were terrorist attacks against Christians, but claimed it was impossible to back up assertions of deliberate targeting.
Moreover, CNN published a piece on Thursday after the strikes, titled, “Trump says violence in Nigeria targets Christians. The reality is more nuanced.”
The outlet reported that “experts and analysts” have told it that Muslims have also been victimized by radical Islamists.
“Has the long-running violence killed Christians?” the outlet asked, answering, “Yes – though that’s only part of the picture.”
Still, CNN acknowledged “a spate of high-profile attacks in predominantly Christian pockets of the north” of the country, highlighting examples of mass killings in Christian areas.
Like Elbagir, the outlet suggested the killings were a politically opportune issue for right-wing evangelical Christians.
CNN subsequently highlighted mass killings of Muslims and cited Nigerian human rights advocate Bulama Bukarti, who asserted that public attacks more commonly affect Muslims than Christians.
“Yes, these (extremist) groups have sadly killed many Christians. However, they have also massacred tens of thousands of Muslims,” Bukarti said.
CNN also referenced Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), which reportedly found there 317 Christians were killed in targeted attacks compared to 417 Muslims from January 2020 to September 2025. However, the outlet noted that the group did not identify the religion of the overwhelming portion of the over 20,400 civilians killed during the time period.
The Conversation also found in November that church attacks have greatly outnumbered mosque attacks since 2020, using data from ACLED. Nigeria has a similar number of Christians and Muslims, according to multiple reports.
Trump called on Congress to investigate Nigeria in the Oct. 31 Truth Social post, designating the nation as a Country of Particular Concern. He also had warned Nigeria’s government on Nov. 1 that if it did not stop the attacks against Christians, then the U.S. might “very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
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