While some Nigerian Catholic Church leaders welcomed the U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic State group militants in the northwest of the country, an outspoken bishop strongly opposed it, with some church leaders questioning the religious framing behind the action.
The U.S. carried out a deadly strike in northwestern Nigeria Dec. 25, with President Donald Trump stating the attack targeted Islamic State group terrorists who persecuted Christians in that nation.
"Tonight, at my direction as Commander in Chief, 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!" wrote Trump in a Dec. 25 post on his social media platform, Truth Social.
"It's long overdue," Auxiliary Bishop John Bogna Bakeni of Maiduguri told OSV News. "It is also good the Nigerian government is open to international assistance in the face of overwhelming insecurity."
But Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto opposed the strikes. "Violence cannot defeat violence," he said, adding that Christianity has survived oppression through resilience, not force. "Let us heed those solemn words of Jesus to Peter: Put your sword back in its place."
The impact of strikes was not immediately known, but according to The Associated Press, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that more strikes were to come.
AFRICOM, the U.S. military's command in Africa, confirmed the attack in a Dec. 25 X post, saying it had launched the strike in Nigeria's Sokoto state "at the request of Nigerian authorities" — with a revised version of the post saying that the attack had been launched under the direction of Trump and Hegseth "in coordination with Nigerian authorities."
Father Augustine Ikenna Anwuchie, a Nigerian Fidei Donum priest who serves as a missionary in the Diocese of Maradi in the neighboring Republic of Niger, told OSV News that the strike sends a strong message to the Nigerian government, which has largely adopted non-kinetic approaches — considered by some as pampering terrorists through dialogue and negotiations.
The government even paid ransoms running into billions — rather than taking decisive military action, alleged the priest.
"In all honesty, the Nigerian military has the capacity to confront and decisively resolve the country's insecurity. However, bad governance, corruption and tribal sentiments have ensured that insecurity is prolonged," said Father Anwuchie.
The priest said Nigeria's insecurity has become an industry, interwoven with politics, power struggles, religious extremism and the control of rich mineral resources in the North.
"The national security architecture is dominated by individuals who are ethnically aligned with and sympathetic to extremists," he said.
Persecution of Christians goes along with the attacks on moderate Muslims in the region, many observers say.
On Dec. 24, Boko Haram carried out a suicide bombing at a mosque in Maiduguri, killing 30 people, according to the priest, while Fulani herders invaded a predominantly Christian enclave in Benue state, killing 5 people.
"For many Muslims, this is one of the reasons Trump should not frame Nigeria's insecurity as a Christian-only issue. Nonetheless, many welcome the strike insofar as it halts the killings, while others remain cautious and angered by the religious framing," he said, warning that while the U.S may assist, Nigeria alone must solve its security problems.
"Until this government takes decisive and uncompromising action, we will continue merely scratching the surface of the crisis," said Father Anwuchie.
In November, Pope Leo XIV said that both Christians and Muslims had been slaughtered in Nigeria.
“I think in Nigeria, in certain areas, there is certainly a danger for Christians, but for all people,” he said. “There is a question of terrorism. There is a question that has to do a lot with economics, if you will, and control of the lands that they have. Unfortunately, many Christians have died.”
Before the strike, Bishop Kukah said in his Christmas message, released on Dec. 24, that the "men of evil" who had descended on northern Nigeria were the product of Nigeria's "toxic" politics and are part of Nigerian society.
"Whether we choose to call them, bandits, miscreants, kidnappers, jihadists, herdsmen, all we know is that these men and women of violence are our children, they have come out of our own loins," Bishop Kukah said.
He called the attackers a product of northern Nigeria's low level of development and years of miseducation that have turned innocent children into "demons full of hatred," in a region with the highest rates of poverty, illiteracy and disease.
"The message is simple: We must either renovate, educate or perish. We must choose the light of knowledge and abandon the darkness of ignorance. We must hold ourselves to higher moral codes," warned Bishop Kukah.
Father Moses Aondover Iorapuu, vicar general pastoral of the Diocese of Makurdi, told OSV News, however, that without U.S. support, Nigeria stands no chance against the jihadists.
"We woke up here to this (news) breaking. We had information about planned terrorists' attacks during Christmas, and we had to reschedule our Masses in Makurdi Diocese. This first wave of attacks by the U.S. must be preemptory," he said.
"The people of Nigeria know that without the intervention of the United States, the country stands no chance against the jihadists who have infiltrated the political class," he told OSV News.
Nwankwo Tony Nwaezeigwe, president of the International Coalition against Christian Genocide, said in a statement thathis coalition was "overwhelmed with happiness" to learn that Trump had ordered the strikes.
"There is no better Christmas gift than this wonderful action coming from the president of the United States," whom he described as the "indomitable global defender of Christianity."
Authorities in Nigeria said the country's military worked in tandem with the U.S. military in a joint operation targeting terrorists.
In a Dec. 26 statement, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed "structured security cooperation with international partners," saying, "Terrorist violence in any form, whether directed at Christians, Muslims, or other communities, remains an affront to Nigeria's values and to international peace and security."
Father Iorapuu disagreed, telling OSV News that the terrorists have never made any pretense about their identity as jihadists bent on annihilating Christianity from Nigeria.
"The persecution of Christians in Nigeria has been institutionalized. That's why it's impossible for the church to achieve victory on its own. The jihadists have also triumphed over state armies and security forces. Their desire is to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria, and Christians are their fundamental target. Other moderate Muslims get caught up only as collateral (victims)," Father Iorapuu said.
Emeka Umeagbalasi, director of the Catholic-inspired advocacy group Intersociety, said that since 2009, when Boko Haram began its murderous campaign to establish a caliphate across the Sahel, at least 185,000 Nigerian civilians have been killed, including 125,000 Christians and 60,000 moderate Muslims.
"The jihadist forces have since 2009 also burned 19,100 churches and seized 1,100 Christian communities,' he told OSV News.
Numbers given in reports by Intersociety were questioned by the BBC fact-checking desk, however, saying the methodology of reports is unclear and sometimes repetitive numbers appear in them.
Quoting official data from the bishops' conference, Aid to the Church in Need, a pontifical charity, said in a pre-Christmas press release that between 2015 and 2025, at least 212 Catholic priests were kidnapped in Nigeria. The findings point to a nationwide security crisis that has made Nigeria one of the most dangerous countries in the world for clergy.
The ongoing study documents kidnappings in at least 41 of Nigeria's 59 Catholic dioceses and archdioceses. Of the 212 priests abducted, 183 were released or escaped, 12 were murdered, and three later died from trauma and injuries sustained during captivity.
At least four priests remain in captivity: Father John Bako Shekwolo, Father Pascal Bobbo, Father Emmanuel Ezema and Father Joseph Igweagu.
