U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said President Donald Trump told the Pentagon to concentrate on safeguarding Christians in Nigeria who are allegedly attacked by ISIS-linked extremists.
Hegseth said the assertion Wednesday during a White House press briefing. He said the order came down approximately a year ago after Trump was briefed on violence against Christian communities in Nigeria.
Trump urged the Department of War itself to ramp up efforts to protect vulnerable people, he said.
“He heard the cries of the Nigerian Christians who were being attacked and killed by ISIS in Nigeria and he said, ‘Pete, I want the War Department to do everything possible to protect those Christians,’” Hegseth recounted.
He said the directive resulted in coordinated military planning and the use of intelligence-backed actions.
“We laid down the necessary assets and over the last month, although it hasn’t received a lot of media attention, we took out the number two leader of ISIS in Nigeria who was very much involved in attacks against Christians and threats to the U.S. homeland,” he said.
The dead fighter was Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the man believed to be the No. 2 leader of the ISIS affiliate in the region, Hegseth said. He said the operation was carried out jointly by U.S. and Nigerian military in the Lake Chad Basin.
“Information from the mission was used in a larger operation that resulted in the killing of multiple ISIS operatives,” he said.
“From the intelligence recovered, hundreds of ISIS fighters involved in the attacks on Christians in Nigeria have since been neutralized,” he stated.
The mission is part of the Trump administration’s broader counterterrorism strategy and its commitment to protecting civilians in combat zones, the defense chief said.
“There are many operations the public doesn’t hear about, but the President has empowered the department to act decisively in defense of the American people and others at risk,” Hegseth said.
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