The Nigerian Army is using Trump's words to defend gunning down dozens of protesters

On Thursday, President Donald Trump threatened that the U.S. military could shoot migrants who throw rocks at soldiers stationed on the southern border. One day later, the Nigerian army used those words to justify its recent deadly shooting of dozens of protesters.

“We’re not going to put up with that. If they want to throw rocks at our military, our military fights back,” Trump said in a speech at the White House. Trump has deployed thousands of U.S. troops to the border to meet the migrants and asylum seekers traveling in a caravan from Central America.

“We’re going to consider — and I told them, consider it a rifle,” Trump said.

The president’s words clearly resonated with the Nigerian military, which tweeted a clip of Trump’s speech, along with a caption: “Please Watch and Make your Deductions.”

Human rights groups have condemned the Nigerian military after soldiers opened fire on hundreds of Shia Muslim demonstrators on Saturday and Monday in Abuja and Nasarawa state. The incident left dozens dead, and injured up to 100 people. Demonstrators were were protesting against the imprisonment of Islamic Movement of Nigeria’s leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky, who has been imprisoned since 2015.

Read: A slaughter in silence. How a brutal ethnic cleansing campaign in DRC was made worse by Trump's "America First" policies and the world's neglect.

The military has laid blame on protesters for throwing rocks, but video and eyewitness testimony gathered by Amnesty International describe Nigerian soldiers shooting peaceful protesters without warning. Describing the shootings as a “horrific use of excessive force by soldiers and police,” the human rights group accused that Nigerian security forces of killing 45 protesters over the course of two days.

John Agim, a spokesman for the Nigerian Army, told the New York Times that the video was posted in direct response to Amnesty International. The Nigerian military claims that only three protesters were killed.

“We released that video to say if President Trump can say that rocks are as good as a rifle, who is Amnesty International?” he said. “What are they then saying? What did David use to kill Goliath? So a stone is a weapon.”

Cover image: In this Oct. 27, 2018, photo, President Donald Trump speaks during a rally at Southern Illinois Airport in Murphysboro, Ill. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)