A group of prominent Christian leaders in the United States are appealing to President Donald Trump to again call out the egregious persecution of Christians in Nigeria that’s seen 7,000-plus massacred in just the first seven months of this year.
Government forces do battle Boko Haram and other Islamist terror groups that brutally terrorize Christians and non-Christians in northern Nigeria, but they simply stand by as militant Fulani Muslim herdsmen assault their Christian neighbours in the nation’s Middle Belt.
Since 2009, the persecution has seen a reported 18,000 churches destroyed, 50,000 Christians murdered and 5 million more displaced.
Per the International Religious Freedom Act, the president must designate any nation that engages in or tolerates “particularly severe violations of religious freedom” as a “Country of Particular Concern”; Trump so listed Nigeria in his first term.
But in 2021, the Biden State Department reversed that finding, claiming the violence wasn’t about religious persecution but the impact of climate change.
Senator Ted Cruz (Republican-Texas) and Rep. Chris Smith (Republican-New Jersey) have a bill to require the administration to make the CPC designation, and to sanction Nigerian officials who facilitate or permit jihadist attacks against Christians and other religious minorities — but Team Trump should act on its own.
It’s not Washington’s job to right all the world’s wrongs, but Uncle Sam can at least condemn these ongoing atrocities.
