United States President Donald Trump has said American military operations helped stop the killing of Christians in Nigeria.

Trump made the claim on Friday while speaking at an event in Washington, where he highlighted his administration’s counterterrorism efforts and security actions in different parts of the world.

The US leader said American involvement in Nigeria contributed to ending attacks against Christian communities in regions affected by insurgency and extremist violence.

“As you know, we recently struck Nigeria and largely ended the slaughter of great Christian populations.

Trump said the attacks had claimed the lives of thousands of people, including women, children and elderly residents.

“They have a great Christian population. They were being butchered, butchered thousands and thousands of people were being killed, children, women, old people, just being slaughtered, hatched to death.

He further stated that those behind the attacks suffered major setbacks following the reported military action.

“They know that if they go further, the attack will be far greater and that they don’t want to really get involved anymore so much. We hit them very hard. We knocked out their leader. We knocked out their second leader and their third leader.” (Saturday Tribune)