African Union Chief Rejects Trump’s Claim of ‘Genocide Against Christians’ in Northern Nigeria
The head of the African Union Commission has firmly rejected allegations made by US President Donald Trump that Christians are being subjected to genocide in northern Nigeria. Speaking at a United Nations forum in New York on Thursday, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said such claims oversimplify a complex security crisis and risk distorting the reality on the ground.
Appearing alongside UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, Youssouf stressed that the African Union had already clarified its stance on the situation and cautioned against the use of inflammatory language when describing conflicts across the continent. “There is no genocide in northern Nigeria,” he declared. “We have issued a communique making clear that what’s going on in the northern part of Nigeria has nothing to do with the kind of atrocities we see in Sudan or in some part of eastern DRC.”
The AU chief noted that extremist violence in northern Nigeria, primarily driven by Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), has impacted both Muslims and Christians. “The first victims of Boko Haram are Muslims, not Christians — and I’m saying this with documented references,” Youssouf emphasized. He warned that mischaracterizing the violence as religious persecution risks obscuring deeper issues such as terrorism, displacement, and competition over land and resources.
His remarks follow Trump’s recent comments alleging large-scale killings of Christians in northern Nigeria and suggesting that Washington could consider “military options” to protect religious minorities. The statements have provoked widespread debate internationally.
The Nigerian government, meanwhile, has consistently denied the existence of any religiously motivated genocide, asserting that the violence stems from terrorism and criminal activities rather than a campaign against a particular faith community.
