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President Donald Trump designated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” on October 31, 2025, and later suggested that the U.S. military could be deployed to protect the country’s Christian population amid worsening persecution.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” wrote Trump on his social media platforms on Friday.
The United States, said Trump, “cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!”
On Sunday, Trump told reporters that the military “could be” sent to Nigeria.
“I envisage a lot of things. They’re killing record numbers of Christians in Nigeria,” said the president on Air Force One. “They’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers. We’re not going to allow that to happen.”
The situation in Nigeria is something that both the Church and human rights groups have been speaking about for years. In early 2023, Aleteia noted:
The World Index of Christian Persecution cites Nigeria as the first in terms of violence against Chritians.
It is estimated that 89% of Christians killed throughout the world are located in Nigeria. More than 7,600 Nigerian Christians were reportedly murdered between January 2021 and June 2022.
The United States is not the only group to recognize Nigeria’s serious issues with religious freedom and persecution. Last month, the nonprofit organization Aid to the Church in Need published its biennial report, in which Nigeria was classified as one of the worst offenders when it comes to religious freedom.
But Nigerian President Bola Tinubu issued a statement November 1 denying that Nigeria is unsafe for people of certain religious beliefs.
“The characterization of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of religion and beliefs for all Nigerians,” he said.
In March 2025, Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of Makurdi testified in Congress asking the United States to “re-designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern.”
“This has both a practical and diplomatic meaning, to signal that you are paying attention to what happens to us,” he said.
But in October, Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah of Sokoto, located in northwestern Nigeria, said that labeling the country a CPC would make the situation for Christians worse.
“Designating my country, Nigeria, a Country of Concern will only make our work in the area of dialogue among religious leaders in our country and elsewhere with the Nigerian state even harder. It will only increase tensions, sow doubt, open windows of suspicion and fear, and simply allow the criminals and perpetrators of violence to exploit,” he said.
The Vatican’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, spoke at the release of the Aid to the Church in Need report in October. He alluded to the tensions and government problems noted by Bishop Kukah.
Cardinal Parolin — citing local sources — stressed that the situation in Nigeria is “not a religious conflict, but rather more a social one, for example, disputes between herders and farmers.”
“We should also recognize that many Muslims in Nigeria are themselves victims of this same intolerance,” he noted. “These are extremist groups that make no distinctions in pursuing their goals. They use violence against anyone they see as an opponent.”
This reflects what certain voices have pointed out for years. Again, in 2023, Aleteia spoke with Stephen M. Rasche, visiting scholar at the Kukah Center in Abuja, Nigeria, a center for peace and justice, managed by Bishop Kukah.
“No one denies that the majority of the perpetrators are Muslims and that they put an Islamic fundamentalist cover on these acts,” said Rasche. But it’s valid to ask whether these actors are “criminals who are looking for some type of cover for what they’re doing, which is certainly the case in some parts, or whether they are legitimately motivated by their faith. This is really unclear, and as with much of Nigeria the truth is probably somewhere in between.”
Nigeria is about 50% Muslim and slightly under 50% Christian, with the rest of the population identifying as practicing a traditional Nigerian religion.
The Christian population is concentrated in the southern part of Nigeria, while Muslims live primarily in the north.
The label “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) is the highest designation the U.S. Secretary of State can put on a country for religious freedom violations. It is reserved for countries with governments that have either engaged in or tolerated “particularly severe violations of religious freedom,” says the State Department’s website.
These “particularly severe” violations include torture, prolonged imprisonment with no charges filed, “forced disappearance,” as well as “other flagrant denial of life, liberty, or security of persons.”
Each year, the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) releases a report on religious freedom throughout the world and recommends countries for both the CPC label and the “Special Watch List” designation.
Prior to Trump’s announcement, the countries the State Department deemed as CPCs were Burma, People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Nicaragua, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.
The USCIRF has recommended Nigeria be added to the CPC list since 2009.
In a statement provided to Aleteia, the Commissioner Steve Schneck of the USCIRF said he is “pleased” with Trump naming Nigeria as a CPC.
“While we recognize that Nigeria’s social, political, and economic environment is complicated, it is abundantly evident that the government’s inability to effectively respond to nonstate violence targeting Christian, Muslim, and other religious communities, and the use of corrosive blasphemy laws at the state level, have contributed to Nigeria’s current religious freedom crisis,” said Schneck.
Schneck continued, saying the commission “hopes that the range of presidential actions available under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 to address serious violations of religious freedom will allow the administration to effectively work with the Nigerian government to bring desperately needed improvements to this tragic situation.”
Nigeria was previously listed as a CPC in December 2020, but was removed in November 2021.
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