Trump Shares Video of Plateau Pastor Calling on Him to Save Christians in Nigeria

United States President Donald Trump has shared a video of a Nigerian cleric, Reverend Ezekiel Dachomo, pleading for American intervention to stop the alleged killing of Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt.

Trump reposted the video on his Truth Social account on Saturday without adding any text of his own. The footage shows Reverend Dachomo, a clergyman with the Church of Christ in Nations (COCIN) in Plateau State, speaking at a mass burial for victims of a terrorist attack.

In the emotional clip, which first went viral six months ago, the pastor points to corpses in a mass grave and issues a direct plea to the international community. “Look at it today. Is there any Muslim here?” Reverend Dachomo asked. “United Nations, I know you are watching me. American Senate, you are watching what I’m saying here. Special Adviser to Trump, please tell Trump to save our lives in Nigeria. They are killing Christians in Nigeria — massacring Christians. If they say Muslims are being killed, by who? By Muslims.”

The repost came just hours after Trump announced that U.S. forces, operating alongside the Nigerian Armed Forces, had killed Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, the global second-in-command of the Islamic State.

In a statement on Truth Social, Trump said the operation was carefully planned and executed with intelligence support that tracked the terrorist leader’s activities across Africa. He added that al-Minuki’s death would significantly weaken ISIS’s global operations and diminish the group’s foothold across the continent.

U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth praised the operation on X, stating that American and Nigerian troops successfully tracked and neutralised the ISIS leader accused of coordinating attacks targeting Christian communities. “Operations like last night’s demonstrate the exceptional lethality, patience and skill of U.S. forces,” Hegseth wrote. “This should serve as a reminder that we will hunt down those who wish to harm Americans or innocent Christians, wherever they are.”

Trump’s decision to share the footage has reignited debate surrounding religious violence in Nigeria. While some foreign commentators have described the violence as targeted persecution against Christians, the Nigerian government has consistently rejected claims of a “Christian genocide,” maintaining that the crisis is driven by terrorism and banditry affecting multiple communities.

This is not the first time the Trump administration has acted on such concerns. Trump previously redesignated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” over religious freedom violations and ordered airstrikes against terrorist enclaves in Sokoto State on Christmas Day 2025.