Biden admin.'s refusal to acknowledge Christian persecution in Nigeria undermines foreign policy: watchdog
The U.S. government continues to face pressure to classify Nigeria as one of the world's worst prosecutors of religious freedom as terror attacks against Christians and a lackluster government response to them continue to plague the West African nation.
The U.S.-based religious freedom advocacy group International Christian Concern published a new 19-page report calling on the U.S. State Department to classify Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for "engaging in and tolerating severe violations of religious freedom, saying that its failure to acknowledge the religious elements of violence in Nigeria can undermine the effectiveness of foreign policy measures.
The report by ICC's Advocacy Manager McKenna Wendt states that "it is in the best interest of U.S.-Nigerian foreign policy to designate Nigeria a CPC and appropriately hold it accountable for its failure to protect the human right of religious freedom."
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The U.S. State Department designated Nigeria a CPC in 2020 during the last year of the Trump administration. But every year since the election of President Joe Biden, the African nation has been excluded from the federal government's annual lists of CPCs and the Special Watch List reserved for countries that do not meet the criteria for labeling as CPCs but still "engage in or tolerate severe violations of religious freedom" despite recommendations for doing so by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
"The United States' failure to hold Nigeria accountable for its religious freedom violations has allowed the Nigerian government to operate with impunity, perpetuating the violence caused by non-state actors and allowing state-level persecution to continue," the report laments.
The report highlights the presence of many Islamic terror organizations in the country that directly target Christians.
Attributing the kidnapping of more than 22,000 Christians between 2009 and 2014 and the burning of 13,000 churches and 1,500 Christian schools by the insurgent group Boko Haram in the same period, Wendt cites the Nigeria civil society group International Society for Civil Liberties & Rule of Law to state that "the group was accountable for the deaths of roughly 500 Nigerian Christians" in 2023.
Another terrorist group, Islamic State West Africa Province, was identified as "the deadliest terrorist organization in Nigeria" responsible for a bombing at a Catholic Church that killed 40 people in July 2022.
The report also charts incidents of torture directed at Christians that happened in 2023.
Examples include a January 2023 arson attack on the home of a Catholic priest that resulted in the religious leader burning alive inside, the May 2023 slaughter of 43 Christians by Fulani herdsmen, the August 2023 shooting of a Christian pastor as he worked on his farm, the October 2023 kidnapping and flogging of three Benedictine monks and the use of a machete to kill a Christian doctor that same month.
The most recent examples of torture directed at Christians were the sexual assaults and rapes of at least 13 women in a majority-Christian village and the beheading of "a Christian man who instructed children in the Church of Christ of All Nations."
Wendt notes that in northeast Nigeria, where Islamic extremist groups operate, civilians report that Nigerian security forces "deliberately avoid responding to warnings of violence until after attacks have taken place."
"If they do respond, Christians observe officials responding with more urgency to Muslim communities," the report adds.
"In September 2023, Fulani extremists set the St. Raphael Fadan Kamantan Parish ablaze in a botched kidnapping attempt, where Catholic seminarian Na'aman Danlami was burned alive. Although a government checkpoint was a kilometer away, there was no reaction or support from military forces."
International Christian Concern cites the blasphemy laws in 12 states as an example of a violation of religious freedom encouraged by the Nigerian government, identifying this situation as at odds with the guarantee of religious pluralism in the Nigerian Constitution. The laws are allowed, she said, since "the constitution grants sharia courts jurisdiction solely over matters of personal law."
In addition to requesting the redesignation of Nigeria as a CPC, the report calls on the appointment of a U.S. ambassador to Nigeria as well as a "special envoy to Nigeria to report on the escalating violence taking place in Nigeria."
"When pressed on the exclusion of Nigeria from the CPC list, the State Department, under the Biden administration, maintains that Nigeria 'does not meet the statutory definition of a CPC designation,'" Wendt wrote.
"While the State Department has recognized religious tensions in the region, the violence is often attributed to issues of climate change, farmer-herders conflicts, and ethnic divides," Wendt wrote. "Although these factors are certainly at play, it is a grave misjudgment to downplay the religious components of these conflicts and solely attribute them to secondary issues."
In Nigeria's Middle Belt states, thousands in predominantly Christian farming communities have been killed in recent years during attacks from radicalized nomadic Fulani herders.
Fulanis are the world's largest nomadic group, comprised of roughly 20 million dispersed throughout West Africa.
"Their early acceptance of Islam from Arab and Berber traders and subsequent propagation of the religion has made Fulanis foundational in the spread of Islam across West Africa. In the 16th century, the Fulani participated in jihads, or holy wars, which established them as a dominant social and economic force in the region," the report adds.
"Today, the group remains the most populous and politically influential among the 250+ ethnic groups in Nigeria. The Fulani are comprised of an extensive network of lineages, not all of whom subscribe to extremist views. Some Fulani, however, adhere to a radical Islamist ideology. These Fulani are fueled by an extremist notion that they are superior to those whom they consider 'infidels' — anyone who does not follow their Islamic agenda."
Last Friday, at least 18 Christians were killed by suspected Fulani during an overnight attack on Mbacher village, a predominantly Christian community in Benue state's Katsina-Ala County.
In January, after the State Department released its annual list of CPCs as mandated by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom released a statement saying "there is no justification as to why the State Department did not designate Nigeria … as a Country of Particular Concern, despite its own reporting and statements."
USCIRF, tasked by the 1998 law with making recommendations to the State Department as to which countries to include on the list of CPCs, called for a congressional hearing over the agency's decision not to label India and Nigeria as CPCs despite evidence of religious freedom violations.
"Finally, the U.S. needs to understand and broadcast the true nature of the violence in
Nigeria," Wendt concluded. "Diminishing the violence to secondary issues of 'farmers-herders conflict' or 'climate change' prevents the U.S. from sufficiently addressing the source of the violence. It also significantly undermines the effectiveness of our foreign policy measures, like the CPC designation list."
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
