Boko Haram, ISIS Killing More Muslims Than Christians — Says President Trump In-law

ROME, Italy — Massad Boulos, a senior adviser to U.S. President Donald Trump on Arab and African affairs — and a relative by marriage of Trump — has stated that militant groups such as Boko Haram and ISIS are killing more Muslims than Christians in Nigeria and across the Sahel region.

Speaking after a meeting with Bola Ahmed Tinubu, President of Nigeria, during the sidelines of the 2025 Aqaba Process Summit in Rome, Boulos emphasised that terrorism transcends religion and tribal lines:

“We even know that Boko Haram and ISIS are killing more Muslims than Christians. People are suffering from all sorts of backgrounds. This is not specifically targeted at one group or the other.”

The summit, convening African, Middle Eastern and European leaders, focused on security, terrorism and stability in West Africa and the Sahel.

Boulos’s remarks come at a sensitive moment as some U.S. lawmakers push for sanctions on Nigeria over alleged Christian persecution and calls to designate Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern”. He cautioned against singularly classifying the violence, stating:

“Terrorism has no colour, no religion, and no tribe… People of all religions and all tribes are dying as a result of terrorist acts.”

He went on to highlight the need for deeper U.S.–Nigeria collaboration and reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to protecting civilian lives and strengthening counter-terrorism operations. While noting that Christian communities in Nigeria’s North-Central region have experienced deadly attacks, Boulos insisted the violence cannot be labelled as exclusively targeting Christians.

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Boulos also shared his view of Nigeria as a diverse federation of ethnicities and religions, commended the Tinubu administration’s security initiatives, and described them as “beginning to show results.”