MAKURDI, Nigeria (RNS) — When gunfire echoed through villages near her home last month, Grace Tyohemba silenced her phone and waited for the night to pass. Living as a Christian in Nigeria’s central Benue state had taught her caution: lower her voice, skip church services, pray indoors.
Makurdi, where she lives, is the capital of Benue state in north-central Nigeria, a fertile farming region along the Benue River that has repeatedly been hit by attacks blamed on Islamist militants and armed groups.
Days later, Tyohemba’s phone buzzed with unexpected news.
Friends told her that U.S. forces, working with Nigeria’s military, had carried out airstrikes on Dec. 25 on camps linked to the Islamic State group in the Muslim-majority Sokoto state, in northwestern Nigeria. President Donald Trump called the strikes “a Christmas present.”
Speaking to a reporter by phone, Tyohemba said the announcement stirred something unfamiliar: cautious hope.
“Maybe we can breathe again,” she said. “Maybe we can worship without hiding.”
Authorities secure the scene of a U.S. airstrike in Jabo, Sokoto state, northwest Nigeria, on Dec. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/ Tunde Omolehin)
Across northern and central Nigeria, Christian leaders say the recent U.S. strikes feel like long-delayed recognition of suffering that many believe the world has ignored for decades. For them, the action is not about geopolitics but survival — the chance to attend church openly, send children to school and identify publicly as Christian without fear.
The strikes followed months of increasingly blunt statements by Trump, who began publicly raising concerns about Christian persecution in Nigeria in early October. By the end of the month, he had redesignated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” for religious freedom violations and warned of possible military action.
After the Dec. 25 strike, Trump said U.S. forces had responded to what he described as the “slaughtering of Christians,” adding that militants had been warned there would be consequences.
Nigeria is widely considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world for Christians. The International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law, a religious-violence watchdog group, reports that more than 7,000 Christians were killed and an additio …