Nigerian Christians are being slaughtered by extremist Fulani militia and Boko Haram. Armed Conflict and Location Event Data (ACLED) shows 3,200 people killed by Fulani militia since 2018. Since 2008 there are 40,000 deaths tied to Boko Haram, a terror group that swore allegiance to ISIS in 2015.* One report by a Nigerian organization said that in the first five months of 2020 alone, 620 Christians were murdered in Nigeria.** In addition to murdering Christians, Boko Haram practices mass kidnappings of school girls and many of them have never been found. Those that have been returned to their families alive tell of rape, forced conversion to Islam, and the murder of girls who tried to escape.

On May 20, 2020, Senators Joni Ernst (R-IA) and now former Senator Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) sent a joint letter to then-President Donald Trump, reminding him that after his April 2018 meeting with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, the killing of Christians stopped for six months. The lawmakers asked the President to use the full range of options available to him to highlight the plight of Christians in Nigeria, including sending a Special Envoy to the Lake Chad region, and “impose sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act against those who perpetrate these killings.”

During the Biden Administration, the problems that plagued Nigeria continued. On May 29, 2023, then-President Joe Biden sent a U.S. delegation to attend the Inauguration of Nigeria’s leader, Bola Ahmed Tinubu.++ On Christmas Eve and through Christmas Day 2023, extremists in Nigeria killed at least 140 Christians and injured 200 others, yet the U.S. Department of State failed to add Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” in its Annual 2023 Watch List. That led the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) to publicly call for a 2024 Congressional hearing into the State Department’s lack of focus on religious persecution in Nigeria.+++

In its March 2025 Annual Report, USCIRF did list Nigeria as one sixteen countries worldwide where there is “particular concern” related to religious persecution. USCIRF noted the ongoing attacks by Boko Haram and militants, in addition to the enforcement of “blasphemy laws.” The Commission recommended that Congress should, “Request that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) investigate the efficiency and effectiveness of U.S. assistance to Nigeria in advancing religious freedom and reducing religiously based violence in the country.” ++++

On March 11, 2025, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced H. Res. 220. This House Resolution calls on Congress to “designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern for engaging in and tolerating systemic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom….”

SOURCE: *ACLEDdata.com and Letter to President Trump, Sent by Sen. Joni Ernst and Sen. Kelly Loeffler, May 20, 2020; **Report by the International Society for Civil Liberties & the Rule of Law, Advocacy Report, May 14, 2020. ++Press Release: “President Biden Announces Presidential Delegation to the Federal Republic of Nigeria to Attend the Inauguration of His Excellency Bola Ahmed Tinubu.” https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room-statements-releases. +++ Press Release: “USCIRF Calls for Congressional Hearing after State Department Fails to Designate Nigeria and India as Countries of Particular Concern” (4 Jan. 2024); https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/releases-statement. ++++ March 2025 USCIRF Annual Report, page 28.