As terrorist violence in Nigeria continues to claim the lives of Christians at rates not seen anywhere else in the world, experts and lawmakers gathered for a hearing on Capitol Hill Thursday to assess if any progress has been made to address the crisis one year after the U.S. designated the West African nation as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC).
Last month, another devastating attack was carried out by rifle-wielding terrorists who massacred dozens of civilians, with at least 62 killed and another 52 wounded in Taraba state in the eastern part of the country. The atrocity is part of a disturbing pattern of attacks being committed almost exclusively by Islamist terrorists, including groups like Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), and Fulani. According to Open Doors, of the 4,849 Christians killed for their faith worldwide last year, 72% (3,490) were murdered in Nigeria.
Overall, between 50 and 60,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria by various terrorist groups since 2009, far and away the most killed in any one single country over that time span, with experts calling the situation a “genocide.” In addition, at least 19,800 churches have been attacked, with some estimates stating that over 18,000 churches and 2,000 Christian schools have been destroyed.
During Tuesday’s House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing that aimed to assess Nigeria’s efforts to address the violence since the Trump administration designated the country a CPC a year ago, Riley Barnes, assistant secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, stated that Islamist attacks against Christians have largely continued unabated.
“The levels of violence and atrocities committed against Christians in Nigeria are appalling, particularly in the Middle Belt,” he explained. “Fulani ethnic militias commit violent attacks that directly target Christian populations. Nigerians I have spoken to on the ground have underscored the depth and breadth of suffering for many. Ample witness testimonies over even the past year have stated plainly that perpetrators use religious language during their attacks, specifically identified Christians for killing and abduction.”
Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.), who chaired the hearing, observed during Thursday’s “Washington Watch” that there has been some movement from the Nigerian government to address the ongoing crisis.
“[U]nfortunately, Christians are still being slaughtered, particularly in the Middle Belt, by the Fulani terrorists, the Boko Haram terrorists; more to the north [ISWAP is] continuing their killing spree,” he detailed. “But the government to some extent is trying to mitigate that carnage. But when it comes to Fulani, not nearly enough has been done. [The Trump] administration [is] doing a great job and really pressing the Nigerian government to use police, military assets, [and] intel [to] stop these terrorists from slaughtering Christians, from abducting individuals and then demanding ransom for which they use to buy more weapons and raping the women. It’s disgusting.”
Smith went on to highlight how the Nigerian government has for the most part denied that the targeted killings are even an issue. “On one trip in 2012, [I went to] five fire-bombed churches, met with the survivors — wonderful, wonderful Christians who are suffering lost loved ones. [The] government said, ‘Oh, what? Nothing to see here.’ There’s a culture of denial that enables all of this. They pay lip service but don’t do enough. … Some Muslims get killed too, those who refuse to join in with the jihadist mindset. But Christians are singled out because [they consider them] infidels and don’t deserve to live, and they kill with impunity.”
Smith further noted that the approaches of previous administrations to appease and increase trade with governments that commit egregious human rights violations has not succeeded in stopping the violations. “[The Biden administration] took away CPC status for Nigeria, and under Obama, they wouldn’t even name countries [as CPCs],” he pointed out. “… And people just say, ‘Let’s trade more with this country or that more. Let’s trade with China.’ But [instead] let’s have human rights conditionally affixed to it to say, ‘Okay, we’ll trade if and only if you stop killing the Christians and persecuting believers the way you do.’”
Arielle Del Turco, who serves as director of the Center for Religious Liberty at Family Research Council, additionally asserted that the CPC designation of Nigeria put a spotlight on the issue that should help in the long run.
“[The CPC designation] doesn’t mean things change on the ground overnight, unfortunately,” she acknowledged during “Washington Watch” Thursday. “What it did do, though, is it directed a lot of attention from the State Department onto Nigeria, where it wasn’t really on their radar previously. It is now on the top of their radar. … This was an issue that the Biden administration routinely denied. They would explain it with climate change. They would explain it as a farmer-herder conflict. But the Trump administration knows that when we have militants riding on motorcycles, coming into villages with guns and weapons, slaughtering people, shouting ‘Allahu Akbar,’ that there is a religious element to this.”
Del Turco also emphasized that progress has been made since the CPC designation a year ago. “Now, one year later … at least Nigerian government officials will admit that, ‘Oh yeah, there might be a problem here.’ Now, to us, that might seem so small, but as someone that’s been tracking this issue for years, I think this is the first I’ve heard that Nigerian officials will admit that there’s any problem at all. So these small incremental changes hopefully will lead to something bigger along the way.”
Going forward, Del Turco underscored the responsibility that American Christians have to pray for their less privileged fellow Christians a world away. “I was very blessed to be able to go to Nigeria earlier this year with the group Christian Freedom International, and we were on the ground in some of the villages that do routinely face attacks from these Muslim Fulani militants. I remember one woman in particular we spoke to. … There was a Nigerian military base like a stone’s throw away, so close, but they wouldn’t or couldn’t stop these attacks. … [S]he would just be lying in her bed praying that the Lord would protect her and her two children. Her husband had already died 10 years before from a militant attack. So these people are just trying to lead normal lives. This woman in particular ran a little corner store selling snacks. … [T]his is the violence and brutality that is their normal life that they have to face every day. … These fellow believers in Christ really deserve our compassion. They deserve our prayers.”
