EDITOR’S NOTE: This story has been updated.
NASHVILLE (BP) – The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission expressed hope that religious persecution will lessen in Nigeria. Pres. Donald Trump ordered Christmas Day air strikes aimed at terrorist groups that had “been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians”.
On Truth Social, Trump said, “the United States launched a powerful and deadly strike against ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries!”
In a Dec. 25 post, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth thanked the Nigerian government for its “support & cooperation” related to the strikes.
“The President was clear last month: the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria (and elsewhere) must end,” Hegseth wrote.
The results of the strikes were not immediately announced.
“The Department of War executed numerous perfect strikes, as only the United States is capable of doing,” Trump wrote in a separate post.
In October, Trump designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for tolerating religious freedom violations especially against Christians, and threatened sanctions and military force to discourage such persecution.
During a recent forum hosted by Open Doors International, human rights attorney, journalist and professor Jabez Musa offered a conservative estimate that Boko Haram had killed more than 50,000 Christians in the northeast in the past 15 years, with hundreds of thousands of others displaced and forced to flee the region.
ERLC Chief of Staff Miles Mullin told Baptist Press, “We were grateful for President Trump’s action to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) last month. We are encouraged by the Nigerian government’s willingness to take action. We are hopeful that these joint exercises will have their intended effect of mitigating persecution in the area.”
Mullin said religious persecution is an issue Southern Baptists have always taken to heart.
“Southern Baptists have a special affinity for other Christians around the world, especially those suffering persecution and martyrdom – something that has been happening in northern Nigeria for far too long,” he said in written comments to BP.
In November, the ERLC joined a letter to President Trump thanking him for labeling Nigeria a CPC.
“You saw the evidence, you listened to the cries of the persecuted, and you acted,” wrote Gary Hollingsworth, ERLC interim president.
Of the 4,476 Christians killed worldwide for their faith in 2024, the majority of them, 3,100, were killed in Nigeria, Open Doors reported in its 2025 World Watch List.
While the ERLC leaders believe the president’s designation could be a helpful step, they urge Christians not to forget their fellow believers in Nigeria.
“We must not neglect to continue to pray for the Christians being persecuted in Nigeria,” Mullin said, “We should also redouble our prayers for those persecuting them, that they, like the apostle Paul, might be converted and become fervent followers of Jesus.”
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