US President Donald Trump caused alarm across Nigeria over the weekend when he said he was contemplating military action in Africa’s most populous nation in response to what he claimed was a “mass slaughter” of Christians by Islamist insurgents.
The reality on the ground, experts and analysts say, is a more complex and nuanced one. Both Christians and Muslims — the two main religious groups in the country of more than 230 million people — have been victims of attacks by radical Islamists, they say.
The West African nation has grappled for years with deep-rooted security problems that are driven by various factors, including religiously motivated attacks. Observers say other violent conflicts…
