Nigerian National Security Adviser (NSA) Mallam Nuhu Ribadu met on Monday with military and intelligence officials to plan a response to President Donald Trump’s allegations that their government is not doing enough to protect Nigerian Christians.
Fresh attacks on Christian villagers were perpetrated even as the meeting was underway.
President Trump warned on Sunday that he is considering military intervention to “completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.” On Monday, the State Department designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious persecution.
NSA Ribadu met with the heads of Nigeria’s military and intelligence services on Monday at the National Counter-Terrorism Center (NCTC) in the capital of Abuja. The meeting was reportedly intended to “coordinate a unified national security response and review intelligence assessments on the potential fallout of the US president’s pronouncement.”
Nigeria’s neighbor Chad evidently took Trump’s warning very seriously. Chadian President Mahamat Idriss Deby ordered a lockdown of the border with Nigeria and placed his forces on high alert, reportedly because he feared Nigerian terrorists could flee into Chad during a prospective American military operation.
“No armed group or foreign force will be allowed to enter Chadian soil under any disguise,” Deby said on Sunday.
Local media quoted sources in Nigeria’s Borno State, which borders on Chad, who said that despite news of the Chadian lockdown, movement across the border remained unimpeded.
More terrorist violence was reported in Nigeria’s Benue State on Sunday, when community leader Atindiga Tseebee was killed in an ambush by Muslim gunmen from the Fulani tribe of herdsmen.
Eyewitnesses said Tsebee was returning from a security meeting to discuss a rash of recent attacks when the assailants opened fire on his vehicle, killing him instantly. Surviving community leaders asked the central government to send more troops to secure the area.
One of the recent attacks in Benue State involved Fulani herdsmen teaming up with a local militia leader known as “Heavy” Oraernyi to burn farmland in the community of Mbajir. Residents said the damage to farmland was growing so severe that they might need to abandon their homes.
“We are appealing to traditional rulers, the local government chairmen of Ukum and Katsina-Ala, and the Benue State government to take urgent action before more lives are lost,” one villager told reporters. Others said they were threatened with violent reprisals if they spoke out.
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