Nigeria (MNN) — The United States Congress is taking steps to hold Nigeria accountable for the growing persecution of Christians. The House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa has approved a measure urging President Donald Trump to impose sanctions on the Nigerian government.
Todd Nettleton with The Voice of the Martyrs USA says the move highlights the plight of Nigerian Christians. “This is one subcommittee of the U.S. House basically saying, ‘Hey, we’re going to shine a light on what’s happening in Nigeria, and we would like the President to sanction the government of Nigeria to try to encourage them to take steps on religious freedom and on protecting the Christian minority, especially in northern Nigeria.’”
(Photo courtesy Voice of the Martyrs USA)
Lawmakers hope this move will push Nigeria to take stronger action in protecting religious minorities.
For years, extremist groups like Boko Haram, Fulani militants, and ISWAP have targeted Christians in Nigeria. A 2024 report from the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa found that Nigeria was responsible for 90% of all Christian deaths worldwide each year.
Between October 2019 and September 2023, the report recorded at least 55,910 people killed by terrorist groups active in the country.
Nettleton says, “The sad thing to me is that these attacks have become so common that they almost don’t make the news anymore.”
Despite the ongoing violence, Nigeria was removed from the U.S. State Department’s Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) list in November 2021, a designation that allows for direct sanctions. While the U.S. administration has not yet reinstated Nigeria on the CPC list, Congress is urging sanctions regardless.
“The reality is the Nigerian government hasn’t taken steps to protect persecuted Christians in the North, and so I think they do deserve to be painted as complicit in what is happening there,” says Nettleton.
“The national government of Nigeria, even though in their constitution they promise religious freedom, they don’t actually defend the rights of religious minorities in the North in a way that protects them from these attacks.”
As Congress pushes for action, Nettleton urges Christians worldwide to respond. “We need to know what’s happening with them so that we’re aware; so that we can pray effectively and pray knowledgeably for them.”
Nettleton also encourages, “One of the things Christ calls us to do is to forgive and even to pray for those who are persecuting us. So pray that our Nigerian brothers and sisters, even through the grief and the loss and the suffering they have endured, will still be able to have soft hearts towards their persecutors.”
Header photo courtesy of The Voice of the Martyrs, Canada.
