IN SHORT: In early November 2025, several Facebook posts claimed that the first US fighter jet had landed in Nigeria after US president Donald Trump warned the West African country to stop the alleged killing of Christians. But we found no evidence of the US military deployment and the posts show unrelated photos.
“Breaking News: The first American fighter jet has just landed in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, carrying heavy military equipment on board,” begins a post circulating on Facebook since early November 2025.
As evidence, the post features two photos: one of a fighter jet and another of military vehicles, presumably carrying weapons.
The post also says: “Reliable sources confirm that an advanced air defense system has now been deployed within the Port Harcourt axis, signaling a major strategic move by U.S. forces in the region.”
Rivers state is in south-eastern Nigeria.
The post started circulating after US president Donald Trump claimed that Christianity was facing an “existential threat” in Nigeria and categorised it as a “country of particular concern”. He even threatened to go in “guns-a-blazing” if the West African country failed to stop the alleged attacks on Christians.
A “country of particular concern” is a designation of a nation engaged in severe violations of religious freedom under the US’s International Religious Freedom Act.
While there have been reports of attacks on Christians and members of other religious groups in Nigeria, Trump has provided no proof for any of his claims.
At the same time, the Nigerian government has rejected Trump’s claims, saying “the characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality”.
The claim that the first US fighter jet has landed in Nigeria can be found here, here, here and here.
But is it true? We checked.
No truth to the claim
The first sign that the claim may be false is the absence of credible media reports of such an invasion by the US. The subject has been making headlines since Trump made the claims. If the US had sent its army to Nigeria, the media would have also reported it.
Trump has been posting the claims on his social media accounts, including Instagram and Truth Social. We searched the accounts and found no evidence that the US had sent its military to Nigeria.
We ran the photo of the fighter jet through a reverse image search and were unable to find its source. However, it does look like the US Navy’s Super Hornet. There are no instances of the same photo attributed to any US invasion.
A reverse image search of the photo showing military vehicles led us to a video about China's mobile air defence system. It was posted on YouTube in September 2024.
We found no evidence to support claims that US fighter jets and military vehicles carrying weapons have arrived in Nigeria.
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