The head of the largest organization representing the Tiv people of central Nigeria told local media he sent a letter to President Donald Trump this weekend thanking him for approving airstrikes against jihadists exterminating Christian communities nationwide.
Chief Iorbee Ihagh, the head of the Mzough U Tiv organization, told Nigeria’s Leadership newspaper that he hoped to see further American action in the Tiv heartland, Benue state — a predominantly Christian region experiencing some of the most severe genocidal attacks by Fulani jihadist terrorists seeking to eliminate the Christian presence in the country. The Tiv, who are mostly located in Benue, are overwhelmingly Christian but represent a small community compared to the three largest ethnic groups in Nigeria: the Fulani, the Igbo, and the Yoruba.
In Benue state, Christians of a wide variety of denominations have protested for years that jihadist terrorists described as Fulani “herdsmen” have overrun their communities, displacing thousands of people, burning down churches and homes, and stealing land from the indigenous people of the Middle Belt.
As Father Remigius Ihyula of Makurdi, Benue state, told Breitbart News in 2023, Christians have experienced discrimination from the jihadists and the federal government twice over because of their status as ethnic minorities.
“It is a way of perpetuating injustice over minority tribes and they are comfortable with that so that even in the leadership of Nigeria,” he explained, “they feel that if you are not Hausa Fulani you are not qualified to be leader to Nigeria, or you’re not from the Yoruba tribe you are not qualified.”
Chief Iorbee Ihagh, speaking from Makurdi, told Leadership that President Trump’s actions to protect Christians in anticipation of the Christmas holiday, despite occurring in the northwest of the country, brought hope to central Nigeria.
“With what the U.S. troops started in the North West, I am glad that the end to terrorism is here. I have written to the American president to thank him for his bold step,” Ihagh was quoted as saying, “and to ask that his troops come to Benue, where priests, lay faithful, and church members are being killed inside churches every other day. We are weighed down by the bloodbath that has engulf our lands.”
Ihagh described what the Tiv people and Christians are experiencing in the Middle Belt as “genocide.”
“For over 16 years we have been displaced, farms destroyed, schools and hospitals razed by herdsmen terrorists, we can no longer access our ancestral homes, anyone who attempts going there is killed,” he explained.
President Trump announced on Christmas Day that he had approved a “powerful and deadly strike” against “ISIS terrorist scum” in northwest Nigeria. Nigeria’s north is primarily Muslim, while its southern states are majority Christian; the jihadist group Boko Haram is most commonly known to operate in the northeast of the country. Benue lies in the “Middle Belt” that marks the border between the Christian and Muslim regions.
“I have previously warned these Terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,” President Trump announced in a message on his website, Truth Social. “The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing. Under my leadership, our Country will not allow Radical Islamic Terrorism to prosper.”
Trump concluded by wishing a “MERRY CHRISTMAS to all, including the dead Terrorists.”
The Nigerian government has offered minimal information on the strikes. Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told CNN this weekend that Abuja was aware and coordinated the strikes with Washington and emphasized that the attack was intended in part to show the Trump administration that President Bola Tinubu is able and willing to work with the United States to fight jihadist terrorism. Tinubu, himself a Muslim, has faced global condemnation for inaction in the face of growing genocidal threats against Christians in the country.
“This was coordinated with the U.S., the same way that we’ve been saying we are ready, willing, and able to collaborate, to coordinate with any foreign government that is committed to the fight against terrorism,” Tuggar asserted. He added that he had been in direct and continuous communication with American Secretary of State Marco Rubio to ensure that Tinubu was informed and approved of the strikes.
“He gave the go-ahead. And then Marco Rubio called me, once more, for a five-minute discussion, and, subsequently, the attacks were carried out,” Tuggar explained.
Neither the U.S. nor Nigerian government have offered clear explanations, however, of the results of the airstrikes. Anonymous reports in the Nigerian newspaper Daily Trust indicated that the government has yet to confirm any deaths, but that the airstrikes were a “huge success” and neutralized a significant number of terrorists. An unnamed “top security source” described the strikes as targeting “the mountainous areas of Tangaza” that had been home to “bandits,” a Nigerian government euphemism for jihadists.
“The delay in releasing the proof of success is deliberate,” the source claimed. “There is no doubt about whether non-state actors have been decimated or not. It was a success story.”
In Tangaza, Sokoto state, northwest Nigeria, local officials also confirmed that the federal government had not offered any casualty counts as of Monday.
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