“‘Enough Is Enough’: Congress Says Nigeria’s Christian Massacres Ignored for Too Long”
By Paul Ebi
Trump-ordered inquiry fuels talk of sanctions, military options as experts warn Nigeria has entered its ‘most dangerous phase’ of religious violence
Washington, D.C. — In an extraordinary show of bipartisan alarm, leaders of the U.S. House Appropriations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee convened a rare joint briefing on Tuesday to investigate what lawmakers describe as escalating, targeted and largely unpunished violence against Christians in Nigeria.
The session — led by Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart, R-Fla., Vice Chair of Appropriations and Chair of the National Security Subcommittee — forms part of a sweeping congressional report ordered by President Donald Trump. The White House-directed probe is tasked with examining recent massacres of Christians and identifying policy steps the United States could take to pressure Abuja to act.
Trump has publicly floated the possibility of direct military action against Islamist militants in Nigeria — a signal of the seriousness with which his administration is approaching the crisis.
The congressional investigation is being spearheaded by Reps. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., and Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla.
‘Religious freedom under siege’
Vicky Hartzler, Chair of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, delivered an unflinching assessment, describing Nigeria as a country entering a “coordinated and deeply troubling period of escalated violence.”
She cited the kidnapping of more than 300 schoolchildren and repeated attacks in which “radical Muslims kill entire Christian villages and burn churches.”
Hartzler said violations were “rampant” and “violent,” claiming Christians were being targeted at a 2.2 to 1 rate compared with Muslims.
Nigeria, she noted, has taken some early steps — including reassigning roughly 100,000 police officers from VIP protection to general security — but warned the measures fall far short of addressing the scale of the crisis.
Sanctions, visa bans, aid restrictions on the table
Hartzler urged Congress to impose targeted sanctions on Nigerian officials “who have demonstrated complicity,” including visa restrictions, freezing U.S.-based assets, and conditioning foreign and humanitarian aid on measurable accountability.
She also called for a Government Accountability Office investigation into how previous U.S. aid to Nigeria was spent, saying Abuja must reclaim villages seized from Christian farming communities to allow widows and orphans to return home.
‘The idea that Christians and Muslims are targeted equally is a myth’
Dr. Ebenezer Obadare of the Council on Foreign Relations directly challenged Nigeria’s longstanding claim that the killings are not religiously motivated.
He dismissed the narrative as “a myth,” arguing extremist groups “act for one reason and one reason only: religion.”
Higher Muslim casualty numbers, he said, reflect geographical exposure — not equal targeting.
Obadare condemned Boko Haram and similar groups as inherently anti-democratic and accused the Nigerian military of being “too corrupt and incompetent” to dismantle jihadist networks without strong external pressure.
He urged the United States to push Abuja to:
Disband armed groups enforcing Islamic law
Root out corruption within the security forces
Respond immediately to early warnings of impending attacks
‘Deadliest country in the world for Christians’
Sean Nelson of ADF International offered perhaps the starkest statistic: Nigeria, he said, is “the deadliest country in the world for Christians,” with more Christians killed there annually than in all other countries combined. Adjusted for population, he said Christians die “five times” more frequently than Muslims.
Nelson acknowledged extremists also kill Muslims who reject their ideology — but argued this only further undermines claims that the violence is driven by banditry or local disputes rather than religious extremism.
He pressed for stricter U.S. oversight of assistance to Nigeria, including channeling funds through faith-based organizations to avoid corruption, and demanded greater transparency in Nigeria’s handling of mass kidnappings and ransom payments.
Biden-era policy under fire
Díaz-Balart sharply criticized the Biden administration for removing Nigeria from the list of “Countries of Particular Concern” (CPC) in 2021, a designation the Trump administration had previously applied.
“That reversal,” he said, “has had clearly deadly consequences.”
Lawmakers on Appropriations, Foreign Affairs and Financial Services signaled further investigations, hearings and possible legislative action as they assemble the Trump-ordered report.
Signs of movement from Abuja — but doubts remain
Hartzler acknowledged that Nigeria has recently taken several actions that could indicate a shift in posture:
President Bola Tinubu’s redeployment of 100,000 VIP police officers
Public recognition by Nigeria’s Speaker of the House that the country faces a “coordinated and deeply troubling period of escalated violence”
A call by the Nigerian House Majority Leader for intensified legislative oversight
She described the developments as “a promising start after years of neglect,” but warned they were “far from sufficient.”
“The Nigerian government must show clear intent to quell injustice,” she said, “act swiftly when early warning signs appear, and commit to transparency and accountability. Only then will these steps amount to real progress.”
The Nigerian Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
