[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E728]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          DESIGNATING NIGERIA A COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 25, 2025

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record the 
following letter, drafted by respected experts--including former 
Members of Congress--in the field of religious freedom, underscoring 
the dire state of religious freedom in Nigeria, and calling for that 
country to be designated a Country of Particular Concern under the 
International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. Their stark appraisal of 
the situation, and the immediate threat to the lives of thousands of 
Nigerians, merits immediate action by the administration.

                                                    June 13, 2025.
     Hon. Christopher Smith,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Representative Smith: As religious freedom advocates 
     and leaders of grassroots organizations with millions of 
     American members, we thank you for sponsoring H. Res. 220 
     which recommends redesignating Nigeria as a Country of 
     Particular Concern (CPC) for particularly severe religious 
     persecution. We consider this a critical first step in 
     addressing the situation in Nigeria.
       As you know, House Resolution 220 calls for the Secretary 
     of State to address the egregious, systematic, and ongoing 
     religious persecution, in Nigeria, specifically by 
     redesignating Nigeria as a CPC under the International 
     Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IRFA).
       Nigeria is the world's deadliest country for Christians, 
     according to Open Doors' 2025 World Watch List. Of the 4,476 
     Christians killed for their faith worldwide during the 
     reporting period, 3,100 (69 percent) were in Nigeria. FIDES, 
     a Catholic news agency, indicated that over ten years least 
     145 priests had been abducted and eleven murdered.
       In addition, designated terror groups such as Boko Haram 
     and the Islamic State West Africa Province have killed 
     thousands of Christians and Muslims who reject their dictates 
     and suppressed the rights of women and girls. Boko Haram 
     kidnapped over 200 schoolgirls in 2014 in Chibok, Borno 
     State, half of whom remain captive, forced them into sexual 
     slavery and pressured them to convert to Islam. In another 
     case, Leah Sharibu remains enslaved following a 2018 
     terrorist raid on her school.
       Most of this slaughter, however, is carried out by militant 
     Fulani Muslim herders, who have been allowed to target 
     Christian villages with impunity. In its recommendation of 
     CPC designation for Nigeria, the U.S. Commission on 
     International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) concluded in its 
     2021 Annual Report that the Nigerian Government has 
     ``routinely failed to investigate these attacks and prosecute 
     those responsible, demonstrating a problematic level of 
     apathy on the part of state officials.''
       Christians who are violently attacked and whose land is 
     confiscated by the militant Fulani Muslim herders, end up 
     living in Internally Displaced People (IDP) camps, which are 
     unspeakably inhumane and unfit for animals. Currently there 
     are well over 2 million people living in such camps in the 
     Makurdi diocese alone. The Pontifical foundation, Aid to the 
     Church in Need, which works to help the Church in areas of 
     high distress in Nigeria, has collected this video evidence 
     from Makurdi of Christians living in such camps.
       Authorities also enforce Islamic blasphemy laws that have 
     resulted in recent death sentences for Sufi musician, Yahaya 
     Sharif-Aminu, and two Muslim clerics, and ``religious 
     insult'' laws that led to a 24-year sentence for Nigeria's 
     Humanist Association head, Mubarak Bala. These laws have also 
     been accompanied by a routine grant of impunity for 
     extrajudicial attacks against their perceived violators. In 
     2023, there was the unprosecuted mob killing of student 
     Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu after she was accused of blasphemy 
     and the unprosecuted serious death threats against the Sultan 
     of Sokoto. Sokoto's Catholic bishop, and Rhoda Jatau, a 
     Christian woman, all three of whom were targeted for 
     expressing disapproval of Yakubu's murder.
       On March 13, 2025 the House Foreign Affairs' Subcommittee 
     on Africa held the hearing: ``Conflict and Persecution in 
     Nigeria; The Case for a CPC,'' with Catholic Bishop Wilfred 
     Anagbe of the Makurdi diocese in Benue State, Nina Shea, 
     Hudson Institute's Senior Fellow and Director of its Center 
     for Religious Freedom, and Family Research Council's 
     President Tony Perkins--all testifying to the medieval-like 
     persecution currently targeting Christians in Nigeria's 
     Middle Belt region.
       Ms. Shea stated that ``Nigeria's government has not 
     undertaken a thorough, objective, and transparent 
     investigation of the militant Fulani herders' organization, 
     leadership, motives, or intent in these attacks.'' Yet, Shea 
     noted, ``[s]urvivor accounts, collected by churches and 
     journalists on the ground, frequently report that their 
     attackers spoke Fulfulde and shouted `Allahu Akbar' or other 
     religious sentiments as they killed, as USCIRF noted in its 
     reports.''
       Following the recent congressional hearing and subsequent 
     international scrutiny, Nigeria's President, Foreign Minister 
     and other governmental authorities, such as the Governor of 
     Benue, have undertaken an aggressive public affairs campaign 
     to deny and deflect the truth about their inaction to stop 
     the Fulani aggression against defenseless Christian farming 
     communities occurring in several Nigerian states. Bishop 
     Anagbe has even been personally threatened following his 
     testimony in Congress.
       We were alarmed to hear reports that between May 24-26, 
     2025, Fulani Muslim militants waged another massacre in Benue 
     state, possibly in reprisal for Bishop Anagbe's speaking out 
     about Fulani violence in his testimony before Congress. This 
     recent attack was against the bishop's home village of 
     Aondona, as well as its surrounding villages of Ahume, 
     Tyolaha, and Tse-Ubiam. Reuters reports that at least ``42 
     people were shot dead by suspected herders'' in those attacks 
     and that 32 of the villagers' bodies were recovered in 
     Aondona and Ahume, alone. In response, the U.S. Mission in 
     Abuja issued a statement on X strongly condemning these 
     brutal attacks and urging Nigerian authorities to investigate 
     and hold the responsible parties accountable. Other 
     governments also issued similar statements. Experience shows 
     that the Nigerian government has routinely failed to ensure 
     such investigations and accountability on what have become 
     relentless Fulani herder assaults on defenseless Christian 
     farming villages.
       Encouraged by the example of Bishop Wilfred Anagbe, others 
     are also speaking out against the government's grant of 
     impunity in the face of such atrocities. This is a critical 
     time for Congress to act, as Nigerians in the Middle Belt 
     area are supporting international attention.
       Nigeria wields significant influence in Sub-Saharan Africa. 
     By allowing severe religious persecution to proliferate 
     within its borders, Nigeria is compounding already heightened 
     regional insecurity.
       We respectfully ask you to co-sponsor House Resolution 220 
     and urge the passage.
           Sincerely,
       Ambassador Sam Brownback, Co-Chair, International Religious 
     Freedom Summit; Nina Shea, Senior Fellow and Director, Center 
     for Religious Freedom at Hudson Institute; Frank Wolf, Member 
     of Congress (VA) 1981-2015, retired; Dr. Mary Ann Glendon, 
     Former Ambassador to the Holy See and Chairman of the State 
     Department Commission on Unalienable Rights; Douglas Burton, 
     Director, Truth Nigeria; Richard Ghazal, Esq., Executive 
     Director, In Defense of Christians (IDC); Patricia Streeter, 
     Co-leader, Anglican Persecuted Church Network; Faith J.H. 
     McDonnell, Director of Advocacy, Katartismos Global; Mark 
     Tooley, President, Institute on Religion and Democracy; Dr. 
     Gregory H. Stanton, Founding President, Genocide Watch Chair, 
     The Alliance Against Genocide; Dr. Katrina Lantos Swett, 
     President, Lantos Foundation for Human Rights & Justice; 
     Steven Wagner, President, Solidarity with the Persecuted 
     Church; Troy A. Miller, President & CEO, National Religious 
     Broadcasters (NRB); David Trimble, President, Religious 
     Freedom Institute; Michael Arthur Vacca, Director, 
     International Catholic Jurists Forum; Travis Weber, Vice 
     President for Policy & Gov't Affairs Family Research Council; 
     George Weigel, Distinguished Senior Fellow and William E. 
     Simon Chair in Catholic Studies Ethics and Public Policy 
     Center; Dede Laugesen, Executive Director, Save the 
     Persecuted Christians; Kelly (Monroe) Kullberg, General 
     Secretary, American Association of Evangelicals (AAE); The 
     Rt. Reverend Andudu Adam Elnail, Anglican Bishop of Kadugli 
     and Nuba Mountains, Sudan, Co-leader, Global Anglican Future 
     Conference (GAFCON) Suffering Church Network.

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