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 have plagued Nigeria continue. On May 29, 2023, President 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” on its December 29 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.+++

President Biden should be encouraged to use his authority to help stop the bloodshed.

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.

President Biden should be encouraged to use his authority to help stop the bloodshed.

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. ***USCIRF Calls for Congressional Hearing after State Department Fails to Designate Nigeria and India as Countries of Particular Concern” (Jan. 4, 2024), https://www.uscirf.gov/news-room/releases-statements/uscirf-calls-congressional-hearing-after-state-department-fails.