United States President Donald Trump has added Nigeria to countries on watchlist for Christian genocide..
Trump made the announcement on Friday on his Truth Social.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” Trump said.
He said Nigeria, Africa’s largest oil producer and most populous nation, would be added to the US “Countries of Particular Concern” list for nations accused of violating religious freedom.
According to the State Department’s website, the “Countries of Particular Concern” list also includes nations such as China, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, and Pakistan, among others.
The US President said he had asked US Representatives Riley Moore and Tom Cole, along with the House Appropriations Committee, to investigate the issue and report their findings to him.
The ICIR reported that US Senator Ted Cruz recently introduced a bill aimed at protecting ‘persecuted’ Christians in Nigeria.
A member of the US House of Representatives, Riley Moore, urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to take immediate and decisive diplomatic action against the Nigerian government over what he described as the “systematic persecution and killing of Christians” in the country.
Similarly, US comedian and talk show host Bill Maher alleged that Christians in Nigeria were being systematically targeted and killed by terrorist groups.
Reacting, President Bola Tinubu, on September 30, dismissed allegations of religious genocide in Nigeria as unfounded, stressing that the nation was built on the faith and resilience of its people.
However, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has maintained that Christian communities, particularly in northern Nigeria, have faced intense attacks, resulting in loss of lives and the destruction of churches and other places of worship.
Similarly, reacting to growing reports of Christian persecution in Nigeria, the Vatican Secretary of State, Pietro Parolin, said that many Muslims in Nigeria were victims of Nigeria’s insecurity.
