United States (US) President Donald Trump is monitoring the situation in Nigeria.

This comes days after Trump made threats to initiate military action against the West African country over religious violence against Christians.

The US administration has also added the country back to a “Countries of Particular Concern” list of nations that they say have violated religious freedoms, which include countries such as China, North Korea and Russia.

Nigeria, however, denies all claims of Christian persecution.

The White House says that US President Donald Trump is closely monitoring the situation in Nigeria.

The West African nation, home to more than 200 million people, is divided between the predominantly Muslim north and the Christian south.

For over a decade, Nigeria has faced severe attacks from groups such as Boko Haram and the

Islamic State West Africa Province, resulting in thousands of deaths.

–SABC–