Bishop Kukah urges calm after U.S. missile strikes in Sokoto, northwest Nigeria

Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah, who leads a Roman Catholic diocese in Sokoto in northwest Nigeria, has been trying to tone down an uproar after U.S. missiles struck the region the day after Christmas, the New York Times reported on Jan. 28, 2026. When he first heard that Sokoto had been bombed he feared the attack would be seen as a U.S.

war on Islam in a region that has been overwhelmingly Muslim since the 19th century. Several hours later he learned the missiles had struck miles outside the city, aimed at Islamist extremists in hide-outs, and he said he was relieved that the targets were the “criminals causing the real problems in Nigeria.” Mr.

Trump said in a social media post that the missiles were aimed at “ISIS Terrorist Scum in Northwest Nigeria, who have been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians.” Bishop Kukah has spent months trying to counter fiery talk from Washington and some quarters in Nigeria that have described a “Christian genocide,” arguing instead that the crisis is a complicated cycle of terrorism, religious persecution and criminal violence in a country of some 240 million people evenly split between Muslims and Christians.

The bishop described concrete grievances affecting Christians in his diocese — priests and parishioners kidnapped, a young seminarian murdered, a blocked attempt to build a chapel on a university campus and parishioners passed over for promotions — and said these were “clear signs” of persecution.

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