Will Trump really use 'military action' in Nigeria?

If the government in Nigeria does not stop the wide-scale slaughter of Christians there

the United States military is going to step in guns a-blazing. That's the message from President Donald Trump

No one is really sure exactly what U.S. military action in Nigeria would look like just yet

The U.S. doesn't have a huge military presence in Africa, just about 6,500 troops or so

which means military options are a little limited. But let's go ahead and dive into what led to this moment and what that intervention could look like

We're going to start with some geography. Nigeria is located in West Africa

The capital, Lagos, is right here on the coast with the Gulf of Guinea is what that body of water is called

Most of the U.S. military presence in Africa, though, is on the other side of the continent in Djibouti

which is over here. Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation. More than 232 million people

live there. About half of them are Christian. The other half, mostly Muslim. Most of the

Christians in Nigeria live in the south of the country and in an area known as the Central Belt region So kind of this area there also a large Christian population in Lagos the capital of Nigeria

Most of the north is populated by Muslims, but there are still some Christians living in this area, mostly in minority communities

Most of the massacres happening in the area, or in the country rather

is happening right here in the northeastern part of Nigeria. That area, there's a scarcity of resources there and also lots of tribal and communal fights that could go back generations

So while President Trump is right that thousands of Christians were killed in Nigeria in recent years

thousands of Muslims were also killed. Islamic extremist groups like Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab murder both Christians and any Muslims they deem as not being Muslim enough

The scarcity of resources in the northeast of the country is also pitting farmers against herders

Most herders are Muslims. Most farmers in the area are Christian. So while there may be attacks against Christians

Nigeria government says the motivations behind those attacks were more about resources not about religion That why Nigeria president Bolo Tenubu says while Trump is right to want to stop the killings it a mischaracterization of the events on the ground

to say only Christians are being killed. Tenubu and his advisors say this is a classic case

of President Trump threatening force as a way to start the negotiating process

In the days since announcing possible strikes in Nigeria, the White House

started walking back the military option a bit. White House Press Secretary Caroline Levitt said the U.S. would immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria

and may take military action if the Nigerian government did not. But let's go ahead and push things out to the right and assume President Trump is serious about military action in Nigeria

What would that look like or what could that look like? As we learned earlier, most of the U.S. troop presence in Africa is here in Djibouti, about 4,000 troops or so stationed there

That's about 2,300 miles to the east of Nigeria. Last year, the U.S. pulled out about 1,000 troops that were stationed in Niger

There was also a drone base that was in Niger The American troops were there to monitor Boko Haram in the area but that gone now as well So really the options include flying some planes or some drones over Nigeria to gather some

intelligence, possibly do some strikes. There could be a possibility of putting some naval assets

off the coast here in the Gulf of Guinea. That might be able to offer some possibility of

Tomahawk cruise missiles doing some land strikes into Nigeria. If it's an airstrike option using

planes, there's not going to be a whole lot of warning necessarily for the folks in Nigeria

for Boko Haram or the Nigerian government. If it's going to be naval assets, that takes more

time to get those assets in place. They would have to sail either around Africa from the Mediterranean

or the Red Sea or, you know, come over from the Caribbean or come over from the Indo-Pacific

Either way, there's just not a whole lot of naval, U.S. naval assets in this region right now

which again is why some critics are saying President Trump is using the threat of military

action in Nigeria to really kickstart negotiations and get something done about the killings taking

place in the country, which are definitely happening. For more news like this

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