RFI President David Trimble wrote a piece recently for RealClearPolitics outlining the ongoing threats Nigerian Christians face and the inadequate response of the United States, both to their plight and to the dire religious freedom conditions in Nigeria generally.

Trimble writes:

Last month in Nigeria, Christians were confronted with yet another reminder of the ongoing threats they face in their own communities. In August, “more than 70 Nigerian Christians were killed and another 20 Christian medical students were kidnapped in separate violent attacks in the southeastern Nigerian state of Benue.”

Violent Islamists such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) continue to terrorize populations in northern Nigeria. According to a detailed report released just days ago, armed Fulani herdsmen and other terrorists and militia groups are responsible for the majority of attacks in Nigeria’s Middle Belt communities, where shocking levels of violence have persisted for years. These Fulani militants account for far more attacks against Christians (and Muslims) than either of the more prominent Boko Haram and ISWAP. Conditions on the ground are admittedly complicated by the range of malicious actors at play.

Further aggravating the situation for Nigerian Christians, there are sharia courts in more than a dozen provinces that oppose equal rights and due process for religious minorities, as well as blasphemy laws enshrined in Nigeria’s criminal and sharia codes.

Over the last decade, Islamist extremists have killed approximately 4,000 Christians annually. The figures for Nigeria in just the last couple of years are staggering. In 2022, more than 5,000 Nigerian Christians were killed, and more than 3,000 kidnapped. In 2023, as many as 8,000 Nigerian Christians lost their lives to this scourge of violence.

The Trump administration designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for the first time in 2020. A year later, the Biden Administration announced Nigeria’s removal from the CPC list and has yet to redesignate it. Congressman Chris Smith, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, and others have insisted that Nigeria must again be added to the list.

Read the full article: “U.S. Must Acknowledge and Address Religious Persecution in Nigeria.”