OPINION:
Christian persecution is raging at record levels across the globe, as adherents in multiple regions find themselves under unfathomable duress. But the situation in Nigeria is particularly troubling, with slaughter, assaults and social ostracism now daily norms for many.
The murder and mayhem inside the African nation have long been on the radar of persecution watchdogs, yet the dire situation seems to be increasing its fast-paced spiral into a ghastly pit of absolute and unadulterated horror.
Nigeria is now, according to persecution watchdog Open Doors U.S., the seventh-most dangerous place in the world for Christians, landing just six spots behind North Korea, a hermit nation known for its own ghastly brand of persecution, including labor camps and murder.
“Jihadist violence continues to escalate in Nigeria, and Christians are particularly at risk from targeted attacks by Islamist militants, including Fulani fighters, Boko Haram and [Islamic State West Africa Province],” Open Doors recently noted in its annual World Watch List report. “These increased under the rule of former President Muhammadu Buhari, putting Nigeria at the epicenter of targeted violence against the church.”
Most recently, during Holy Week, the havoc was on full display when more than 170 people were massacred by apparently Fulani extremists in Nigeria’s Plateau and Benue states. The specific details of what unfolded are almost unfathomable.
“It was a massive killing. … When [people] could not find their missing brothers, sisters or relatives, they searched the bushes and discovered their decomposing bodies, led by the odor,” Father Moses Aondoanenge Igba said of the carnage. “What happened on that Holy Thursday, which I call Black Thursday, and the following day, Black Friday, was a massive attack and massive killing of innocent people in our communities.”
Joel Veldkamp, head of international communications at Christian Solidarity International, shared with me some additional shocking and heartbreaking stories — atrocities recounted to him by a co-worker who reached central Nigeria after the attacks began.
“He said most of the people who are in there have wounds from machetes,” Mr. Veldkamp said. “The attackers are actually using machetes to kill and to hurt people. He met a 7-year-old boy named Steven, whose entire family was killed. His father was shot and killed. His mother had both of her arms cut off with machetes, and then she died, we believe. His two other siblings were both hit with machetes and they were killed.”
The child, who was also sliced in the neck with a machete, was left for dead — but survived. Days later, the boy was “still screaming and vomiting” in pain as he languished in a local hospital.
Sadly, this experience has become par for the course, especially in northern Nigeria, where Christians are “second-class citizens,” according to Open Doors US. Fulani drives much of the horror.
“For the last 20 years, probably up to about 100,000 Christians have been murdered,” International Christian Concern leader Jeff King told me in 2023. “Three-and-a-half million Christians, their lands have been taken from them, and the government’s pretty much done nothing.”
These trends and the increase in chaos necessitate an important U.S. response. The Trump administration must unequivocally condemn this chaos in Nigeria and demand that the government there take serious action to thwart deadly anti-Christian persecution.
A key method of exerting this pressure is to return Nigeria to the State Department’s Countries of Particular Concern list, a government roster of the nations that restrict religious freedom or are complicit in religious freedom violations.
One of the most head-scratching dynamics is that Nigeria was given that designation in 2020 during President Trump’s first tenure, but the Biden administration, for some inexplicable reason, removed the nation from the list.
Its removal is troubling, as the designation means that the secretary of state is officially calling out “severe violations of religious freedom” under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. In practice, the designation means Congress becomes aware of the problem before non-economic, and even economic, measures are then taken to stop the persecution.
The carnage tells anyone paying even a semblance of attention to what’s unfolding that it’s far past time to put Nigeria back on the roster of horror-show nations where persecution reigns supreme.
But don’t just take my word for it. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, a bipartisan federal agency tracking religious freedom, said last year that there’s “no justification” for the State Department not placing Nigeria on the list.
This year, the commission once again recommended Nigeria be added to the Countries of Particular Concern list, explaining why the dire situation inside the nation necessitates such a move.
“Religious freedom conditions in Nigeria remain poor, with both state- and societally perpetrated violations,” the description reads. “The federal government continues to persecute the leadership and members of the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMNi), a Shi’a minority group. Additionally, there are widespread instances of intercommunal and militia violence, rampant kidnapping, and general criminality that also prevent religious freedom.”
Mr. Trump must take immediate action to demand that the State Department redesignate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern and take all necessary measures to pressure the government there to step up to the plate and stop this madness.
People’s lives are very literally on the line. Let’s be the shining city on a hill that targets and thwarts this evil and works diligently to return religious liberty and sanity to the Nigerian people.
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” Mr. Hallowell is the author of four books.
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