Republican congressman pushes administration to place Nigeria on religious freedom watch list

WASHINGTON (OSV News) -- A Republican lawmaker urged the Trump administration on March 12 to designate Nigeria as a "country of particular concern" in response to violence in that country perpetuated against predominantly Christian communities.

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, held a hearing of that subcommittee on what he said was a deteriorating situation in Africa's most populous nation.

"Make no mistake, these ongoing attacks are based on religion, and diverting attention from it denies what we have seen with our own eyes," Smith said. "This 'religious cleansing' needs to stop, and the perpetrators be brought to justice."

More than 100 people were killed and 300 injured in Nigeria's Plateau state Dec. 23-24, 2023, in what some news outlets attributed to clashes over land between farmers and herders amid ecological changes brought about by climate change, among other violence.

But some in the country -- including Bishop Wilfred Chikpa Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi in Nigeria's Benue state -- Smith, and independent religious liberty watchdogs have argued such attacks are conducted by Islamist groups and targeted against Christian communities and, in some cases, moderate Muslim communities.

Bishop Anagbe testified at the hearing that the "long-term, Islamic agenda to homogenize the population has been implemented, over several presidencies, through a strategy to reduce and eventually eliminate the Christian identity of half of the population."

"This strategy includes both violent and nonviolent actions, such as the exclusion of Christians from positions of power, the abduction of church members, the raping of women, the killing and expulsion of Christians, the destruction of churches and farmlands of Christian farmers, followed by the occupation of such lands by Fulani herders," Bishop Anagbe said. "All of this takes place without government interference or reprisals."

The International Religious Freedom Act requires the U.S. government to designate CPCs annually. CPCs are defined in law and policy as countries where governments either engage in or tolerate "particularly severe violations" of religious freedom. Non-state actors who engage in similar conduct are designated as "entities of particular concern."

According to the State Department, when a country is designated as a CPC, Congress is notified and "where non-economic policy options designed to bring about the cessation of the particularly severe violations of religious freedom have reasonably been exhausted, an economic measure generally must be imposed."

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, an independent, bipartisan federal entity established by Congress to monitor religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations to Congress, previously called for Nigeria to be designated as a CPCs, even calling for a congressional hearing when the Biden administration did not do so.

In its most recent annual report, USCIRF said urged the U.S. government to designate Nigeria as a CPC "for engaging in or tolerating systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA), and continue to designate Boko Haram as an 'entity of particular concern' for engaging in systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom, as defined by IRFA."

The U.S. government should take additional policy steps "to protect vulnerable religious communities, including Christians and Muslims," in that nation, the group said.

"While I strongly believe that President Trump will again designate Nigeria a CPC -- and do much more to assist the persecuted church including outreach to Nigerian President Bola Tinuba -- last night I reintroduced the resolution," Smith said at the hearing. "Help can't come fast enough."

Rep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., ranking member of the subcommittee, called religion "a factor" in the conflict, but said "other dynamics" such as economic and ecological challenges to stability in the country should also be addressed.  

"I am also concerned about the state of freedom of religion or belief in Nigeria," said Jacobs, who previously worked in the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations at the U.S. Department of State. "However, we need to be careful of our characterization in this complex challenge." Jacobs noted roughly equal populations of Muslims and Christians in that country, and said such challenges impact both groups.

Jacobs also said efforts to reduce U.S. foreign aid by the Trump administration could also be a deterrent to a resolution to the conflict.

Nina Shea, senior fellow and director of the Hudson Institute's Center for Religious Freedom, said at the hearing, "Nigeria is a country of superlatives -- Africa's most populous country, its largest economy and, alarmingly, the entire world's deadliest country for Christians."

"In recent years, more Christians have been killed for their faith in Nigeria than all other places combined, reports the respected research group Open Doors," Shea said. "Currently, militant groups of nomadic Fulani Muslim herders are reported to be the greatest threat to Nigeria's Christians, particularly those in Middle Belt farming communities. That central area is the intersection of Nigeria's mostly Muslim North with its mostly Christian South."