00:01Nigeria said on Sunday it would welcome help from the United States in fighting Islamist insurgents as long as its territorial integrity is respected.
00:10That came in response to threats of military action by President Donald Trump over what he said was the ill-treatment of Christians in the West African country.
00:18Nigeria, a country of more than 200 million people, is divided between the largely Muslim North and mostly Christian South.
00:26Islamist insurgents such as Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa province have wrought havoc in the country for more than 15 years.
00:36The groups have killed thousands of people, but their attacks have been largely confined to the northeast of the country, which is majority Muslim.
00:43Most of the victims of Boko Haram violence are Muslims.
00:47Malik Samuel is a senior researcher at Good Governance Africa in Abuja.
00:51It's not helpful to narrow this conflict, to narrow it down to religion.
01:00Some Christians in Kaduna said they would welcome U.S. support for their communities.
01:04But others made clear that they wanted U.S. help, not American decision-making.
01:09John Joseph Hayab is the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria for the northern part of the country.
01:14So, let it not, let's not be hypocritical in this matter. What some of us will not support is anybody deciding who should be our leader. It's purely a Nigerian thing.
01:23The militant groups move between neighboring countries Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
01:28And countering that movement could be one way the U.S. might make the region more secure.
01:32This is where Nigeria needs all the help it can get to manage its borders properly, to prevent movement of foreign fighters across borders.
01:40But again, to officiate this group by cutting their access to finances and resources.
01:47Some experts said the U.S. may require help from the Nigerian military, to which Trump threatened to cut off assistance.
01:53That task would be made more difficult given the U.S. withdrew its forces last year from Niger, which borders Nigeria in the north.
Comments