On Thursday, December 25, the United States carried out several deadly airstrikes in northwestern Nigeria, in the state of Sokoto. This was the Trump administration’s first intervention in Africa’s most populous country. For several weeks, the president had threatened military action against the Islamic State, which he accused of “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians, at levels not seen for many years, and even Centuries,” according to a statement issued by the Department of Defense. The Department also released video footage of a Tomahawk missile being launched from a U.S. warship stationed in the Gulf of Guinea.

The United States Africa Command (AFRICOM), in charge of operations on the continent, announced that the military had acted in coordination with Nigerian authorities, who provided intelligence information to Washington. It also stated that the attacks killed several people, presented as Islamic State terrorists; however, there is no way to verify the accuracy of this information.

Nevertheless, this narrative of fighting terrorism mirrors the logic used to justify the genocide of the Palestinian people through attacks on Hamas, or the aggression against Venezuela through the fight against drug trafficking.

In the case of Nigeria, Trump is also portraying Nigerian Christians as victims of “genocide.” This rhetoric is shared by sectors of the American Far Right and by Trump himself, who offered “Merry Christmas to all, including the dead Terrorists, of which there will be many more if their slaughter of Christians continues.” In reality, like Trump’s previous allegations of “white genocide” in South Africa, these claims are baseless, white supremacist rhetoric.

Nigerian authorities emphasize that terrorists are targeting anyone who rejects extremist ideology, regardless of religious affiliation. Other organizations monitoring political violence in Nigeria contend that Christians account for a smaller share of the victims and that most casualties of jihadist groups are Muslim. Likewise, Nigeria’s foreign minister has clarified that the joint operation with the United States had “nothing to do with a particular religion.”

While the massacres perpetrated by jihadist groups such as Boko Haram are undeniable, the entire Nigerian population is the victim.

As his popularity plummets, Trump is presenting himself as a defender of Christians. In reality, this is merely a pretext for seizing Nigeria’s massive oil reserves, of which the country is the leading producer in Africa. It is no coincidence that Trump, who openly admits to wanting to “take back” Venezuelan oil by any means necessary, is simultaneously seeking to intervene in Nigeria. Nor is it a coincidence that he is reaffirming his unilateral authority over a country that has close trade and military ties with China.

This new imperialist aggression is part of Trump’s new National Security Strategy. Rooted in the “Donroe Doctrine” in the Americas, this strategy seeks to counteract the decline of U.S. hegemony by forcibly maintaining control of its historical territory in Latin America. The strategy has recently evolved to incorporate Greenland and, in its current pivot toward the African continent, has manifested in the attacks on Nigeria.

Amid Nigeria’s uneven economic growth, external debt, and persistent violence and poverty, neither the U.S. nor China offer a progressive solution for the Nigerian working class. Both countries trap countries like Nigeria in cycles of dependency, resource extraction, and precarious labor for the benefit of global powers.

Nigerian youth have been leading strikes and revolts for better living conditions. Their struggle must confront both their own ruling class, allied with foreign capital, and the global system that sustains their oppression. Socialists must stand in firm opposition to intervention and oppose U.S. imperialism in Africa and around the world.

We condemn U.S. imperialist interventions in Nigeria and elsewhere. U.S. out of Africa and Latin America!

Originally published in Spanish on December 27 in La Izquierda Diario

Translated and adapted by Otto Fors

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