'America wants to control our resources': Protests in Nigeria over Trump threats

People took to the streets in Kano, a city in northern Nigeria, to protest US President Donald Trump's threats to attack the country, rejecting his claim of "Christian genocide", according to multiple media reports.

In Kano State, which has a predominantly Muslim population, numerous Muslim groups gathered on Saturday to condemn Trump's threats of military action in Nigeria.

Demonstrators were carrying placards with messages such as "We condemn Trump's threat to attack Nigeria."

"There is no Christian genocide in Nigeria," and "America wants to control our resources," among others.

On November 1, Trump declared that he had ordered the Pentagon to develop options for possible military measures against Nigeria to protect Christian communities there.

He said that if the Nigerian government "continues to allow the killing of Christians," Washington would immediately cut all aid, adding that the US could "go into that now disgraced country, 'guns-a-blazing'."

No Christian persecution

Nigeria has denied that Christians have been targeted.

Before Trump's threat, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu had said that religious tolerance was "a core tenet of our collective identity".

US-based firm Moran Global Strategies has been lobbying on behalf of separatists this year, advising congressional staff on what it said was Christian "persecution", according to lobbying disclosures.

Nigeria also faces a long-running armed conflict in its northeast and "bandit" gangs in the northwest who stage kidnappings, village raids and killings.

The north's population is mostly Muslim, meaning most of the victims are, too.

Some analysts suggest that Washington's amped-up rhetoric could be related to Abuja rejecting demands to accept non-Nigerian deportees expelled from the United States as part of Trump's immigration crackdown.

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Source: TRT