Engaging With Civil Society and Members of Congress Against Christian Persecution in Nigeria

Nigeria is ranked as the sixth most dangerous country for Christians due to violence by groups like Boko Haram and Fulani militants.

Since 2009, more than 52,250 Christians have been killed, more than 700 Christians have been abducted, and more than 18,000 churches and 2,200 Christian schools have been burned down in Nigeria by Boko Haram and Fulani militants. This violence has forced 5,000,000 Christians from their homes to refugee camps. Rather than violence subsiding, reports show that in 2022, Nigeria accounted for 90% of all Christians who were killed because of their faith. This represents a 10% increase from the previous year. Furthermore, during just the first three months of 2023, reports indicate that more than 1,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria. This level of violence has resulted in a massive humanitarian crisis that has created 2,375,846 internally displaced persons (IDPs) as of February 2023.

While these numbers are astounding and reading stories about Christians being slaughtered in Nigeria is already heart-wrenching, hearing the stories of the day-to-day activities of the first responders and watching videos of slaughtered bodies piled on each other is something else.

As part of our effort to speak out against the atrocities being committed against Christians in Nigeria, I had the privilege to participate in an event organized by the United States House of Representatives’ Values Action Team (VAT) and Aid to the Church in Need. The event was eye-opening, as two individuals who have firsthand experience seeing the death and destruction in Nigeria shared their experiences.

Bishop Chikpa Wilfred Anagbe and Father Remigius Ihyula of the Diocese of Makurdi from Nigeria’s Benue State shared the plight of Christians, shed light on the misinformation, and informed how they are providing relief to the persecuted Christians.

Bishop Anagbe stated that the claims that Boko Haram and Fulani militants attack both Muslims and Christians are simply falsehoods disguised as politically correct speech. He said Benue State is predominantly Christian, and there have been more than 140 attacks against Christians in Benue State alone in the last 18 months. Fulani militants have killed thousands. The attacks have displaced millions of people who have scattered across the state. He further mentioned that consistent with the 1989 Declaration in Abuja, the Islamic militants have taken a vow to make Nigeria Muslim, where almost half of the population is Christian.

He stated:

The experience of the Nigerian Christians today can frighteningly be summed up as that of a Church under a sustained strategy of Islamic intimidation and persecution. From the Christian communities in the Northwest: Sokoto (where a young Christian girl was last year burnt to death by Islamists), Zamfara and Katsina States (where Christians go through hell to obtain land titles and are never considered true citizens), to the areas around Southern Kaduna, down to Plateau State (where killings of the populations have taken on a genocidal level), Borno, Admawa, and Taraba States in the Northeast, and Benue and parts of Nasarawa State, which can actually be referred to as the epicenter of the war on Christians.

Father Ihyula showed videos of Christian villages attacked with guns and machetes, slaughtered men, women, and children, and their bodies piled on top of each other.

Both men lamented that Europe and the United States give millions of dollars in aid to the Nigerian government every year, but the government is not making any efforts to curb the violence. They are waiting for the day when those dollars will be spent on protecting innocent citizens. Bishop Anagbe said, “The inaction and silence about our plight by both government and powerful stakeholders all over the world prompt me to often conclude that there is CONSPIRACY OF SILENCE and a strong desire to just watch the Islamists get away with genocide in Benue State and other parts of Nigeria.”

Members of Congress, including former Congressman Frank Wolf, called for bipartisan support for a resolution introduced by Congressman Chris Smith, which called on the Biden Administration to redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC). Last year, the ACLJ also sent a letter to the State Department, asking the Secretary of State to redesignate Nigeria as a CPC.

We have an ongoing Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and lawsuit against the State Department regarding its decision to remove Nigeria from the CPC list (you can learn more about that ongoing litigation here).

Despite being designated as a CPC in 2020 by our very own Senior Counsel for Global Affairs and then-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo due to ongoing religious freedom violations, Nigeria was removed from the CPC persecution watchlist by the Biden Administration in 2021 and remains absent today. In fact, Nigeria was conspicuously delisted ONE DAY before Secretary of State Antony Blinken met with the Nigerian president.

In addition to urging our government to add Nigeria to the CPC list and limit the funding to the Nigerian government until it shows actual progress in combating the violence, we have also sent numerous reports to the United Nations, and our attorneys have presented oral interventions before the U.N. Human Rights Council, asking the international community to stand with the people of Nigeria.

We are also planning a joint event with our friends at Jubilee Campaign to highlight the senseless violence in Nigeria and call on the U.N. Human Rights Council to intervene. The event will be on the sidelines of the Human Rights Council’s 53rd Session in July and will cover the situation in Nigeria as well as the abuse of blasphemy laws in Pakistan.

With all these efforts to engage at every level, including supporting our Members of Congress, we will continue to stand for our Christian brothers and sisters in Nigeria who are being murdered on a daily basis because of their faith.