Award-winning rapper Nicki Minaj has publicly backed President Donald Trump's claims that Christians are being persecuted in Nigeria.
“In Nigeria, Christians are under attack,” Minaj said at a US-sponsored event on Tuesday, adding: “Churches are being burned, families are being destroyed… just because of the way they pray.”
Analysts say jihadists and other armed groups have unleashed campaigns of violence that affect all communities in the West African country, regardless of background or belief.
Just this week, two people were killed in an attack on a church and a group of 25 girls, who the BBC reported were Muslim, were kidnapped from a school.
Two girls later managed to escape from the kidnappers. A teacher and a security guard, both Muslims, were also killed in the attack at a secondary school in the northwestern state of Kebbi.
Earlier this month, Trump said he would send troops to Nigeria. “the guns are blazing” if his government “continues to allow the killing of Christians.”
Minaj, whose real name is Onika Tanya Maraj-Petty, said at an event hosted by the US Embassy to the United Nations in New York that the call to protect Christians in Nigeria is “not about taking sides or dividing people… but about uniting humanity.”
“It's about standing up to injustice. This is about what I have always stood for,” she added.
The 42-year-old rapper, who has previously spoken about her Christian faith, thanked Trump for “prioritizing this issue and for his leadership.”
The Nigerian government has rejected the claims, calling them a “gross distortion of reality.”
One official said that “terrorists attack all who reject their murderous ideology – Muslims, Christians and non-believers alike.”
Other groups that track political violence in Nigeria say most victims of jihadist groups are Muslim.
The country's 220 million people are roughly evenly divided between followers of the two religions, with Muslims in the majority in the north, where most attacks occur.
Nigerian police in the southwestern state of Kwara on Wednesday confirmed a deadly attack on a church in the town of Eruku, where gunmen opened fire on worshipers the day before, killing two people and kidnapping several others.
Local media reported that armed men, described by residents as bandits, stormed the Christ Apostolic Church during an evening program Tuesday night, shooting the pastor and rounding up parishioners at gunpoint.
Images and short video clips believed to be from church CCTV cameras have been widely circulated online. They show terrified people trying to escape, including an elderly woman desperately trying to escape the militants.
On Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu confirmed that jihad forces had killed a senior army officer after he was ambushed.
Islamic State in West Africa Province (Iswap) said on Monday that its fighters had killed Brigadier General Musa Ubu in the northeastern state of Borno.
The Nigerian army had previously denied that the officer was kidnapped and killed.
The latest attacks have sparked frustration and anger across Nigeria, with many complaining of what they see as an endless wave of insecurity affecting rural communities, churches, schools and major transport routes.
In a statement on Wednesday, President Tinubu said he was “fully aware of the recent surge in violent extremism” across the country, adding that the surge had left him “depressed.”
He ordered security agencies to respond “urgently, clearly and decisively” to what he called attacks by “heartless terrorists.”
Minaj described Nigeria as a “beautiful nation with deep religious traditions” and even noted the “beautiful Barbz” – her fans – in the West African country.
US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz thanked the rapper for “using his huge platform to highlight atrocities against Christians in Nigeria.”
For months, right-wing activists and politicians in Washington have argued that Islamist militants are systematically targeting Christians in Nigeria.
Deadly disputes also often arise over vital resources such as land and water, or are fueled by ethnic tensions rather than religion, analysts say.
Last year, Minaj publicly revealed that despite moving from her native Trinidad to New York at an early age, she still doesn't have US citizenship.
Her appearance at the UN on Tuesday is her highest-profile political appearance to date.
During the pandemic, she made headlines for sharing misinformation about Covid vaccine side effects – claiming that when her cousin's friend got the shot, his testicles swelled and he became impotent.
“His friend had a few weeks left before the wedding, and now the girl called off the wedding,” Minaj wrote online..
Her comments were criticized by the UK's then chief medical officerand then-Prime Minister Boris Johnson also commented, joking: “I'm not as familiar with Nicki Minaj's work as I probably should be.”
Her years-long feud with fellow New Yorker Cardi B has escalated in recent months. exchanging insults about each other's careers and family members.
Additional reporting by BBC correspondent Chris Ewokor in Abuja
