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Why Trump's moves are giving African leaders sleepless nights

This image posted on US President Donald Trump's Truth Social account on January 3, 2026, shows what President Trump says is Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro onboard the USS Iwo Jima after the US military captured him on January 3, 2026. [AFP]

That US President Donald Trump means his words, no matter how outlandish they may sound, is not in doubt. And now African countries he has previously mentioned have a reason to worry.

Last month Trump launched strikes in Nigeria’s Northern State of Sokoto, less than two months after his usual remarks that could have easily passed for informal social media rants about Nigeria being a “Country of Particular Concern” as he threatened a “guns-a-blazing intervention, claiming the killing and persecution of Christians by Islamic groups in the country.

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