With the U.S. administration threatening to take military action and cut aid over violence against Christians in Nigeria, researchers and rights advocates on Thursday (Nov. 20) provided a U.S. congressional panel with insights on ways forward amid heightened tensions between the two countries.
With debate growing shrill on whether Christians are targeted by Islamic extremists in Nigeria, the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Africa heard calls primarily for bilateral efforts. Oge Onubogu, director and senior fellow, Africa Program, of the Center for Strategic and International Studies, cautioned against “reactive, quick-win actions that may seem beneficial to Nigerians but could have larger and far-reaching negative impacts.”
“If the Trump administration follows through on its threats of unilateral military action in Nigeria, it risks endangering the Christians that it claims it wants to protect,” Onubogu told the sub-committee. “It could polarize Nigerians along religious divides, undermine local efforts of improving inter-faith relations, exacerbate extremism, and increase insecurity in the country. Even if the U.S. does not follow through with a military operation, its threats have already provided fuel for radical extremists in the country.”
Islamic extremists have engaged in a rash of attacks and kidnappings in various parts of the country since the U.S. administration began issuing threats. The U.S. rhetoric has also generated toxic commentary among Nigerians, especially on social media, that is not conducive for building unity, Onubogu said.
“Instead of being reactive, the U.S. should focus on proactive long-term engagement in Nigeria that prioritizes institutional support to address the root causes of instability rather than just responding to crisis,” she said.
Nina Shea, senior fellow and director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom, said U.S. designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for tolerating severe religious freedom violations should be leveraged to urge the Nigerian government to take action against Fulani assailants doing far more violence to Christians in Nigeria’s Middle Belt than the Islamic extremist groups the government is trying to control in northern areas of the country.
“There are several actions the U.S. should immediately take to end the impunity afforded to the Fulani militias attacking Christians,” Shea said, giving first priority to disarming Fulani herder militias. “They are an unsophisticated but nevertheless lethal force because they come armed with AK-47s and 49s while their targets have only home-made pipe guns to defend themselves with.”
The assault rifles used by the Fulani are heavily regulated by Nigeria’s Firearms Act and Arms and illegal for the targeted Christian farming villages, she said.
“The Act thus outlaws the firearms that would match the assault-rifle firepower of Fulani militias and leaves the peaceful Christian communities defenseless,” Shea said. “President [Bola] Tinubu should order the removal of Fulani heavy weapons, raiding their encampments at Danjuma Farm in Taraba, and other places, in the process. He should direct cattle breeders’ associations to cooperate in doing this.”
Secondly, part of U.S. foreign aid to Nigeria of about $1 billion annually in recent years should go to areas targeted by Fulani so that predominantly Christian residents can rebuild and defend themselves through early warning systems, communication systems, intelligence sharing and the training and equipping of local security guards, among other measures, Shea said.
“The Fulani militias are not the formidable foe seen in ISIS and al Qaeda, and their attacks could be prevented and defended against,” she said.
U.S. humanitarian aid and charity for victims of Fulani herder militia attacks should be distributed through trusted local providers, including churches on the ground that are one of the main aid providers to survivors.
“Millions of the victims of Fulani herder militias are in need of humanitarian assistance for physical and psychological trauma. They need food aid since they have been driven from their farms,” Shea said.
The U.S. should sanction those aiding, abetting and granting impunity to the Fulani herder militias and high-level officials, including in the criminal justice system and military, she said.
“The U.S. should gather intelligence regarding the Fulani herder militias and review possible visa and Magnitsky sanctions for those aiding and abetting them and failing to act to stop their atrocities,” Shea said. “The names of Fulani warlords and supporters are known or knowable. Some police, military, legal and other officials who fail to perform their responsibilities and deny justice have been identified and should be investigated for possible U.S. visa and Magnitsky sanctions, as well.”
The Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA) has documented that Fulani herdsmen kill more civilians than did Boko Haram or Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) – nearly 15,000 from October 2019 to September 2023, compared with slightly over 3,000 by Boko Haram and ISWAP – and Shea said CPC designation opens the possibility of a binding bilateral agreement to stop such severe violations of religious freedom.
“Stopping the Fulani herder militia attacks and atrocities could be done relatively easily since they are not of the caliber of Boko Haram, and the ISIS- and al-Qaeda linked groups,” she said. “So far, President Tinubu has not shown political will to direct the police and military action within his power.”
Tinubu says a constitutional amendment is required to return policing power to state governors, which could take years, but “right now there exist legal ways President Tinubu can shore up defenses within the targeted Christian areas, for example by letting state governors issue lawful directions to police acting within their states, decentralizing police commands internally, empowering state-backed local guards, deploying more mobile police units to states and prioritizing referrals of state governor police orders for presidential review,” Shea said.
The U.S. should enter into a binding agreement with Nigeria to ensure needed protection against the Fulani militias and should consider working with state governors who seek U.S. help, she said.
“Since President Trump’s CPC designation, some Nigerian officials, including generals for a force in the southern Ondo state, citing worries about securing Nigeria’s porous border, already asked for U.S. partnership in an effort to ‘help flush out Fulani Ethnic Militia terrorists from the Southwest,’” Shea said.
Wider Problem
Onubogu’s testimony mentioned Fulani violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt only once as she stressed that Nigeria’s security crisis is far wider than anti-Christian attacks, and she downplayed the Islamic extremist motives, saying Christians are not killed “explicitly” for their faith despite longstanding documentation of assailants shouting the jihadist slogan, “Allahu Akbar [God is Greater]” in a bid to Islamize Christian lands.
“In recent years, most victims of violence in the Middle Belt have been Christians in farming communities and from various ethnic groups,” Onubogu said. “Most are presumed to have been killed by herders who are predominantly Fulani and Muslim, but they were not killed explicitly because of their faith. Some political and traditional leaders in the Middle-Belt have sometimes described the killings in their region as ‘genocidal,’ however, they also often elaborate that the killings are motivated by ethnic or material considerations such as land, rather than religious difference.”
Despite large amounts of U.S. assistance, the Islamic extremist threat has continued to grow, expanding beyond the northeast, where Boko Haram and Islamist groups have been waging a 15-year insurgency, to the northwest, where “bandit” groups are continually raiding rural villages and terrorizing citizens, Onubogu said.
“In both of these regions, the majority religion is Islam, and most of the victims have been Muslims,” she said. “The Trump administration’s accusations that Nigeria is allowing targeted killings of Christians distracts from a wider problem of tackling jihadist violence, terrorism and widespread insecurity in the country.”
The ORFA study revealed that most victims of Islamic extremist violence were Christians. Of the 30,880 civilians killed in the four-year reporting period, 16,769 were Christians, while the number of Muslims killed was 6,235, ORFA reported. Of 21,532 civilians abducted, 11,185 were Christians, while the number of Muslims abducted was 7,899. Members of African Traditional Religions (ATRs) killed numbered 154, and 184 were kidnapped, while the religions of 7,722 civilians killed and 2,264 abducted were unknown, according to ORFA.
The report added that 55 percent of the Christians slain were killed by Armed Fulani Herdsmen (9,153) and 29 percent by Other Terrorist Groups (4,895). Boko Haram and ISWAP combined accounted for just 8 percent of the Christians killed (1,268).
For Muslims, the perpetrators were the reverse: 24 percent of the Muslims slain were killed by Armed Fulani Herdsmen (1,473), and 53 percent by Other Terrorist Groups (3,334). Boko Haram and ISWAP combined accounted for just 12 percent of the Muslims killed (770).
Onubogu said most Nigerians of all faiths live together peacefully, pointing out that President Tinubu, a Muslim, is married to a Christian, but the high level of insecurity across the country has left many religious communities, including Christians, at risk due to lack of political will in the government and operational capacity in the military and other security services.
“Whether labeled as ‘banditry’ or ‘terrorism’ or ‘communal clashes’ or ‘ethno-religious conflict,’ at the root of this violence is a failure of governance to meet the population’s most basic needs – not only livelihoods, education and health care, but also their need for perpetrators to be held legitimately accountable,” Onubogu said.
The failure to hold assailants accountable has created both a sense of impunity among perpetrators and a sense of grievance among victims, she said. At the same time, the reaction of Nigerian citizens to designation of Nigeria as a CPC and the subsequent U.S. threats in response to persecution of Christians are mixed, she said.
“On one hand, Nigerians, Christian groups in particular, welcome the current international spotlight, viewing it as an overdue opportunity to pressure the Nigerian government into taking decisive action against the violence,” Onubogu said. “At the same time, many Nigerians of all faiths, including Christians, worry that President Trump’s rhetoric – especially the threat of unilateral military action against the country – will be counterproductive and draw attention away from the specific problem of pervasive insecurity across the country, by inflaming existing political tensions and divisions.”
There are also concerns that it would undermine the sovereignty of Nigeria and create an excuse for a military takeover, she said.
Nigerian Government Silence
The Rev. Wilfred C. Anagbe, bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdi in Benue state, told the congressional sub-committee Nigerian Christians had hoped “CPC designation by President Trump at the end of October might stabilize the situation, but instead it is deteriorating into one of the most lethal periods for Nigerian Christians in recent memory.”
Nigeria remains the deadliest place on earth to be a Christian, with more killed there annually than in the rest of the world combined.
“Yet perpetrators face little accountability, and the Nigerian government’s response since the CPC designation is to unleash vain glory speakers and willing tools to spin the narrative and make false equivalencies about Muslim deaths,” Anagbe said. “But I will like to ask the question here, who is killing the Muslims? Is there any Christian militia displacing millions and occupying lands in Nigeria?”
The Nigerian government’s silence and refusal to engage in the face of continued killings and displacements has deepened feelings of abandonment among the people,” he said.
“The National leadership appears disengaged, treating the Christian genocide reports as a non-issue instead of considering it a national emergency,” he said. “This lack of political will undermines trust in government institutions and fuels perceptions of complicity or indifference.”
U.S. Senior Bureau Official for African Affairs Ambassador Jonathan Pratt told the subcommittee said the intent of the U.S. administration’s approach is to raise the protection of Christians to the top of the Government of Nigeria’s priorities, especially in the Middle Belt.
The administration is developing incentives to compel the Nigerian government to better protect Christian communities, he said.
“This plan will consider U.S. State and Treasury engagement on sanctions, as well as possible Department of War engagement on counterterrorism and other efforts to protect religious communities,” Pratt said. “There will continue to be high-level engagement from State Department officials to press their Nigerian counterparts to take concrete steps to prevent attacks and hold perpetrators accountable.”
The U.S. administration is reviewing assistance resources that could be allocated to help protect communities in the Middle Belt.
“We will also continue to work with the Nigerian government to stem the flow of weapons, fighters and funding to violent Islamist extremists,” Pratt said. “Our hope is that our efforts will push the Nigerian government to take measurable steps that will improve security, accountability, and religious liberty.”
