Trump designates Nigeria as country of concern over Christian killings

President Trump introduced Friday that he’s designating Nigeria a “nation of particular curiosity,” citing widespread killings of Christians within the West African nation.

“Christianity faces an existential risk in Nigeria,” Trump wrote in Reality Social. “Hundreds of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are chargeable for this bloodbath. I hereby declare Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN’ – However that’s the least of it.”

The president emphasised that motion have to be taken when persons are persecuted due to their religion.

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Trump mentioned he has tapped Rep. Riley Moore, R-W. Va., Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., and members of the Home Appropriations Committee to research the state of affairs and report their findings to him.

“The US can not stand by whereas such atrocities happen in Nigeria and lots of different nations,” Trump mentioned. “We stand prepared, prepared and in a position to save our nice Christian inhabitants all over the world!”

Members of St. Leo Catholic Church maintain a procession to mark Palm Sunday in Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria on April 13, 2025. (Photograph by Adekunle Ajayi) (Adekunle Ajayi/Getty Photographs)

The state of affairs for Christians in Nigeria has reached an alarming degree. Total villages have been burned to the bottom, worshipers have been killed throughout Sunday providers and 1000’s have been displaced by Islamist teams sweeping by way of the nation’s northern and central areas.

In June, militants attacked a bishop’s village simply days after he testified earlier than Congress in regards to the persecution of Christians, killing greater than 20 folks. Comparable assaults in Plateau and Benue states have killed tons of of individuals this yr alone, with survivors describing gunmen shouting “Allahu Akbar” as they set hearth to church buildings and houses.

Christians maintain placards as they march by way of the streets of Abuja throughout a prayer and penance for peace and safety in Nigeria in Abuja on March 1, 2020. The Catholic Bishops of Nigeria gathered believers in addition to different Christians and different folks to wish for security and to denounce the barbaric killings of Christians by Boko Haram insurgents and the incessant circumstances of kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria. (Photograph by Kola Sulaimon/AFP through Getty Photographs)

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Practically 70% of all Christians killed worldwide for his or her religion final yr had been in Nigeria, in response to worldwide watchdog group Open Doorways. The group warns that Boko Haram, the Islamic State West Africa (ISWAP) and militant Fulani herdsmen are chargeable for a lot of the bloodshed, usually focusing on Christian farmers within the nation’s Center Belt. Rights teams estimate that 1000’s of worshipers are killed yearly, whereas numerous others are compelled to flee.

Mark Walker, President Trump’s ambassador-designate for Worldwide Non secular Freedom, instructed Fox Information Digital that america ought to do what it may to strain the Nigerian authorities to take motion.

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Pope Leo XIV condemned the homicide of as much as 200 folks in Nigeria’s Yelewata group. (Related Press)

“Even conservatively, there are in all probability 4,000 to eight,000 Christians killed yearly,” Walker mentioned. “This has been happening for years – from ISWAP to Islamist Fulani ethnic militias – and the Nigerian authorities must be rather more proactive.”

Walker, a former pastor and Republican congressman from North Carolina, mentioned that whereas he has not but been confirmed, he’s already working with church networks throughout Africa to guard missionaries and native believers.

“This is not about appropriations or politics – that is about human life. We’re speaking about girls and boys, girls being kidnapped and horrific issues taking place. All of us want to lift our voices.”

He added that he plans to work intently with Marco Rubio to strengthen U.S. advocacy as soon as confirmed. “Fortuitously, we now have a secretary of state who has been one of many strongest voices,” Walker mentioned. “He has already made statements and may be very conscious of what’s going on. I sit up for advising him on nations of explicit curiosity.”

WHITE HOUSE RESPONDS TO INCREASE IN CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION CRISIS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Folks collect on the website of a automobile bomb explosion on the Central Market in Maiduguri, Nigeria, the birthplace of terrorist group Boko Haram, on July 2, 2014. (AP Photograph/Jossy Ola)

The White Home has additionally acknowledged an increase in anti-Christian violence in sub-Saharan Africa, the place jihadist actions are exploiting political instability and porous borders. Each Pope Leo and the US State Division have condemned the current massacres in Nigeria and warned that the disaster threatens to unfold past the nation’s borders.

Walker added, “The US should all the time arise for spiritual freedom, and that begins with talking the reality about what is occurring.”

Whereas humanitarian teams proceed to lift the alarm, Nigerian officers deny that Christians have been systematically focused. Info Minister Mohammed Idris just lately instructed Fox Information Digital that claims of mass persecution are “extremely deceptive” and rejected US experiences that tens of 1000’s have been killed.

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, just lately instructed Fox Information Digital that “greater than 50,000 Christians have been slaughtered in Nigeria since 2009” and “greater than 20,000 church buildings and Christian faculties have been destroyed.” He known as the violence “a disaster of non secular genocide” and urged more durable US motion.

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Girls and youngsters held captive by Islamic extremists and rescued by the Nigerian army are seen arriving in Maiduguri, Nigeria, on Monday, Might 20, 2024. Lots of of hostages, principally kids whose moms had been held captive and forcibly married by Islamic extremists in northeastern Nigeria, have been rescued from their important forest enclave and handed over to authorities, the West African nation’s army mentioned late on Monday. (AP Photograph/Jossy Olatunji)

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Presidential spokesperson Bayo Onanuga dismissed the criticism, telling Nigeria’s Every day Submit: “Christians are usually not being focused. We have now spiritual concord in our nation.”

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Regardless of the political debate, the info on the bottom stay bleak. Christian villages proceed to be attacked, church buildings proceed to burn and hundreds of thousands dwell in worry. Western governments have made statements however taken little tangible motion to cease the killings or assist survivors, a priest from Plateau state mentioned, including: “When the world stays silent, the killers return.”

Paul Tilsley of Fox Information contributed to this report.