Trump Calls Out Nigeria For Christian Persecution, Threatens Military Response – Religion Unplugged

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) Oct. 31 for tolerating religious freedom violations especially against Christians, and threatened sanctions and military force to discourage such persecution.
Trump’s Oct. 31 Truth Social announcement naming Nigeria a CPC and his Nov. 1 announcement threatening military action drew praise in part from several religious liberty groups and lawmakers who have long advocated for the CPC designation, including the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.
The Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission applauded the CPC designation that the ERLC has encouraged since the Biden administration dropped it in 2021. The lone year Nigeria was designated a CPC was in 2020 during the first Trump administration.
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“We are grateful for President Trump’s announcement of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, rightly recognizing the horrors of religious persecution happening to our brothers and sisters overseas,” ERLC Interim President Gary Hollingsworth told Baptist Press. “The ERLC has long maintained that the abhorrent treatment of Christians in Nigeria is ample reason for the State Department to take action.”
More Christians are killed in Nigeria than anywhere else, with Open Doors International reporting 3,100 Nigerians killed in 2024 because of their Christianity, accounting for the vast majority of the 4,476 Christians killed that year worldwide, according to Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List released in January.
Violence and persecution of Christians in Nigeria was previously concentrated in the majority Muslim northern Nigeria, but has spread in Nigeria’s Middle Belt where there are more Christians. Religious freedom watchdog groups blame militant Fulani herdsmen and various Islamic terrorist groups for the violence, including the Islamic State – West African Province (ISWAP), Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa-al-Muslim, Boko Haram and the newly organized Lakurawa.
Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu rejected the CPC designation, asserting that the Nigerian government allows religious freedom in the nation where Open Doors International said 46.5 percent of the 229.1 million people were Christian in 2024. Nearly just as many, 46 percent, were counted as Muslim. The CIA World Factbook put the religious demographics, based on 2018 numbers, at 53 percent Muslim and 45.9 percent Christian including Catholics.
Hollingsworth lamented the violence he said continues to increase.
“This designation does not come a moment too soon. We continue to stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Christ around the world and pray for their protection, for justice, and for the Gospel to shine brightly in the darkest of places,” Hollingsworth said. “Religious liberty is a Baptist distinctive.
“Southern Baptists share the conviction that religious freedom is an essential right and must be upheld for people across the globe. SBC resolutions supporting this conviction span from the 1970s to this year’s resolution, ‘On Advocating for International Religious Freedom.’”
Among the largest estimates of Christians killed is Genocide Watch’s estimate that at least 62,000 Nigerian Christians have been killed since 2000, based on Genocide Watch’s 2024 report. Moderate Muslims and indigenous religious communities also face persecution, according to religious freedom advocates including USCIRF.
USCIRF leaders are among those praising the CPC designation.
“We applaud @POTUS for making Nigeria a CPC due to its egregious violations of FoRB (freedom of religion and belief),” USCIRF Chair Vicky Hartzler tweeted. “The Trump admin can now use the various presidential actions outlined in IRFA to incentivize Nigeria to protect its citizens and hold perpetrators accountable.”
U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth responded affirmatively to Trump’s order for military readiness against Nigeria.
“Yes sir,” Hegseth tweeted. “The killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria – and anywhere – must end immediately. The Department of War is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
The International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (IFRA) authorizes the U.S. to invoke sanctions and other punitive measures against countries for religious freedom violations. Military action would move beyond targeted responses IRFA allows, but could be conducted under other presidential powers that are curtailed by the War Powers Resolution of 1973.
Trump, in naming Nigeria a CPC, said thousands of Christians are being killed in the country where “Christianity is facing an existential threat.”
“Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a ‘COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN,’ Trump posted on Truth Social. “But that is the least of it. When Christians, or any such group, (are) slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done!”
He called on U.S. Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) and U.S. Rep. Tom Cole (R.-Okla.) and chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, to investigate. The next day, Nov. 1, Trump ordered the Department of War to prepare for action.
“If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria,” Trump tweeted, “and may very well go into that now disgraced country ‘guns-a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities.”
In former years, and as recently as 2023, the U.S. secretary of state announced CPCs and Entities of Particular Concern, citing details of persecution in its annual Report on International Religious Freedom. The State Department has not submitted a report under the new Trump administration.
This article has been republished courtesy of Baptist Press.
Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.
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