Hold Nigeria accountable for its failure to stop internal religious violence 

Christmas is traditionally a time for peace and celebration as Christians around the world gather to commemorate the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. However, for Christians in Nigeria, this past Christmas was anything but peaceful when radical Islamic militants killed more than 140 of Christians and wounded many more in a chain of attacks targeting several Nigerian villages between Dec. 23 and Christmas Day. With nearly 5,000 Christians murdered in 2023 (accounting for 82 percent of all religious-based murders of Christians worldwide), Nigeria has earned the tragic accolade as the world’s deadliest place to be a Christian, which is why the United States must not turn a blind eye to these atrocities and designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.

The threat to Nigerian Christians has escalated in intensity and expanded beyond Islamic State-affiliated groups, with an increased rate of religiously motivated violent attacks against Christian communities by militant Islamist Fulani tribesmen. The Nigerian government has been grossly negligent in its failure to suppress the expansion of religious violence into the Christian-majority southern states. Simultaneously, in the Muslim-majority northern states, there have been repeated instances of extrajudicial mob violence against individuals accused of blasphemy, who are often detained indefinitely without trial by local courts unconstitutionally enforcing Sharia law.

Even more disturbing are reports of the Nigerian military running an illegal clandestine abortion program in which the freed sex slaves were, many without knowledge they were even pregnant, forced to undergo deadly chemical abortions. Reports estimate that a minimum of 7,000 abortions were performed between 2013 and 2021. The Nigerian authorities view the victims with hostility, and their unborn children — ostensibly the children of Islamist militants — are treated as threats to be eradicated. The Nigerian government has vigorously denied this allegation, although international pressure did lead to an investigation by a Nigerian human rights commission that is unlikely to lead to any accountability.

Despite the widely documented history of violence against Christians, the Nigerian government insists that religious violence is not a pervasive problem in Nigeria. The U.S. State Department under President Biden has negligently perpetuated this lie, insisting that many factors fuel this violence. U.S. administration officials have even suggested climate change has motivated the mass violence due to the migration of Fulani herding communities onto the lands of Christian farmers. I fail to see how climate change explains the 2022 bombing of a church on Pentecost Sunday during worship services.

The U.S. Commission of International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a bipartisan federal commission established by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, makes policy recommendations to the president, the secretary of State and Congress on matters regarding international religious freedom. Under the enabling statute, the State Department has the authority to apply designations to countries in an effort to highlight violations of international religious freedom. The Trump administration previously designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), however, this designation was inexplicably removed by the Biden administration. USCIRF,  members of Congress, and civil society organizations have strongly and consistently criticized the decision to withdraw Nigeria’s CPC designation, but the Biden administration has continued to withhold the designation.

In response to the Biden administration’s repeated failure to designate Nigeria as a CPC for violations of international religious freedom, I co-signed a letter with my fellow House Republicans, urging the secretary of State to reevaluate this decision. I also co-sponsored a resolution introduced by Rep. Christopher Smith (R-N.J.), which was recently debated before the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

During this debate, House Democrats suggested that the House Foreign Affairs Committee should not exercise oversight over these decisions by the State Department. They also mischaracterized the resolution as an attempt to form an exhaustive statement of U.S. human rights policy in Nigeria rather than a vehicle to address an acute religious freedom emergency. Despite the resolution referencing the religious persecution of both Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, House Democrats further argued that this resolution focuses too much on persecution of the former and would send a signal that the U.S. is not concerned about other human rights issues. The scale of violence against Nigerian Christians clearly requires specific attention, just as the persecution of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar has necessitated the prioritization of that issue despite the variety of other human rights violations occurring in Myanmar. The prioritization of a critical exigency does not dismiss the importance of other issues of concern. It appears that House Democrats are simply covering for an unjustified and indefensible decision by the Biden administration.

As a critical partner of the United States in the war on terrorism in Africa, Nigeria must be held accountable for its failure to stop religious violence within its own borders. The U.S. has supported the Nigerian military for over a decade in its own struggle against jihadists. It is evident that poor human rights standards in Nigeria only serve to extend this conflict, and the U.S. is now complicit by omission by turning a blind eye to a Nigerian military that has only perpetuated the violence. By officially designating Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, the U.S. would be enabled to take limited actions to hold individuals accountable for human rights abuses and elevate the importance of this issue in our diplomatic engagement.

John Rose represents Tennessee’s 6th District. William Roberts is a government relations associate for In Defense of Christians (IDC).