Hegseth called on Nigeria to "take both urgent and enduring action to stop violence against Christians," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement, adding that Washington wants to work with Abuja "to deter and degrade terrorists that threaten the United States."
The Thursday meeting between Hegseth and Ribadu at the Pentagon came after US President Donald Trump said Christianity was "facing an existential threat" in the west African nation, warning that if Nigeria does not stem the killings, the United States will attack and "it will be fast, vicious, and sweet."
Nigeria, home to 230 million inhabitants, is divided roughly equally between a predominantly Christian south and a Muslim-majority north.
It is the scene of numerous conflicts, including jihadist insurgencies, which kill both Christians and Muslims, often indiscriminately.
Clashes are also frequent between mostly Muslim herders and mainly Christian farmers over land and resources, particularly water, giving the conflict an air of religious tensions.
However, experts say the conflict in northcentral Nigeria is primarily over land, which is being squeezed by expanding populations and climate change.
Nigerian defence minister to lead search for kidnapped schoolgirls
Lagos (AFP) Nov 20, 2025 -
Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu on Thursday ordered his minister of state for defence to go to western Kebbi state, where two dozen girls kidnapped from their boarding school earlier this week are still missing.
The order for minister Alhaji Bello Matawalle to "relocate to Kebbi State over the abduction of 24 schoolgirls" came as pressure mounted on the government after US President Donald Trump this month threatened military action over what he described as the killing of Nigeria's Christians, a narrative rejected by the Nigerian authorities.
A presidency statement said Matawalle had "experience in dealing with banditry and mass kidnapping", after he secured the release of 279 students aged between 10 and 17 who had been kidnapped from a government secondary school in 2021 in western Zamfara state.
Another state, Kwara, in the east of the country, has ordered some schools shut following a deadly raid on a church on Tuesday, a government official told AFP.
Gunmen stormed a church service in the state on Tuesday, killing at least two people.
Michael Agbabiaka, an elder of the church, told AFP that the attackers fired shots, beat up worshippers and ransacked bags, taking cash and mobile phones.
Speaking by phone, he said 35 people had been abducted by the attackers.
Following the attack, Kwara state government directed the closure of schools in four areas as part of steps to "address recent security breaches", state government spokesman Ibraheem Abdullateef told AFP.
"This decision was taken to checkmate kidnappers who may want to use schoolchildren as soft targets and human shields amidst a renewed crackdown on their hideouts by the security operatives," he said.
Nigerian security forces have been placed on high alert, the information minister said this week, as the country faces an uncomfortable spotlight on its security situation.
Tinubu has "postponed" a trip to South Africa for a G20 summit and to Angola for an Africa-EU meeting to receive "security briefings" on the kidnapped schoolgirls and the church attack, his office said.
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