Trump Stood Up for Nigerian Christians Before. He Should Do It Again Now.

“We’re deeply concerned by religious violence in Nigeria, including the burning of churches, and the killing and persecution of Christians. It’s a horrible story.” 

These were President Donald Trump’s words on April 30, 2018, in a White House meeting with then-president of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari.

We need Trump to speak again now. The horrible violence against Christians in Northern and Central Nigeria has gotten vastly worse.

Last weekend, roughly 200 Christians were murdered in a massive, coordinated, and brutal attack by Fulani Muslim militants in Benue state in Nigeria. The victims were men, women, children, and babies. The attackers set their victims on fire after killing them with AKs and machetes.

Many of these Christian victims were already among the most dispossessed of the earth. They were internally-displaced persons, already struggling to survive in terrible conditions after fleeing the years’-long violence directed at their communities by these Islamist militants. Eyewitnesses reported that there was no doubt about the identity of the attackers. They would shout “Allahu akbar” as they killed.

The states of Nigeria’s “Middle Belt” region, a largely agricultural and overwhelmingly Christian region in Nigeria, have been under siege by Fulani militants for years. This weekend’s attack was the largest single attack by the militants since the Christmas Eve 2023 massacres in Plateau state, where nearly 200 Christians were killed across multiple villages. Plateau and Benue states saw 170 killed this year around Holy Week, and further attacks since, with dozens killed at a time. Taraba state saw 42 Christians killed at the beginning of this month.

Every year, thousands of Christians in Nigeria are targeted and murdered for their faith in Northern and Central Nigeria. More Christians are killed in Nigeria for being Christians than in all other countries combined, year after year. The Catholic Bishop of Makurdi Diocese in Benue, Wilfred Anagbe, has called what is happening to his community a “genocide.” It would be hard to disagree.

Officials in Nigeria have downplayed the targeted and religious aspects of these attacks. The current president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, has directed security services to arrest perpetrators “on all sides of this conflict.” But who were the “perpetrators” from the Christians in Benue? There weren’t any. They were the victims of terrorism. Rarely are militants arrested and prosecuted following these kinds of attacks.

Bishop Anagbe himself has faced serious threats and been warned for speaking to the U.S. Congress about what his community faces every day. Local Christians say that they warn security services when Fulani militants amass for attacks, but those warnings often go unheeded.

When Trump spoke to then-President Buhari in 2018, at least 3,731 Christians in Nigeria were killed for their faith, per Open Doors. Trump took decisive action in 2020 by placing Nigeria on the U.S.’s list for the worst religious freedom violators in the world, the Country of Particular Concern list. That year, 3,530 Christians had been killed. These numbers are likely undercounts.

President Joe Biden removed the designation without explanation the following year, leading to outcry from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the religious freedom advocacy community. Biden failed to make any international religious freedom designations last year. Global Christian Relief reports that between November 2022 and November 2024, 9,814 Christians were targeted and killed by Boko Haram, radicalized Fulani militants, and other extremists in Nigeria. I’ve met with communities whose pastors’ home have been torched and their pastors beheaded.

Then-Senator Marco Rubio repeatedly decried the lack of action from the U.S. on Nigeria’s religious freedom violations during the Biden years. He highlighted prisoners held under Nigeria’s death penalty blasphemy laws. Just last year, in March 2024, Rubio joined Sens. Hawley and Braun in saying to the Biden administration: “You must not stand idly by while Nigerian Christians continue to be murdered for their faith. We urge you to immediately use the tools at your disposal and redesignate Nigeria as a (Country of Particular Concern).”

We need the president and secretary of state to again stand up for Christians in Nigeria. They have both pledged that religious freedom would once again be a central priority of the United States, and have already engaged in actions to make that clear. As Trump and Rubio look to grow trade cooperation with Africa and Nigeria, this kind of systematic and widespread religious violence will make development impossible if not tamed. One Nigerian agency has resorted to asking its employees to “pray and fast” over the food insecurity in the country, caused in large part by the violence and instability.

The first American Pope, Pope Leo XIV, spoke immediately following last weekend’s attacks in Benue. Trump and Rubio speaking should send a clear signal that the United States will not turn a blind eye to the persecution of Christians. They should also immediately place Nigeria back on the Country of Particular Concern list. Speaking the truth about the atrocities facing Nigerian Christians will reverberate throughout the world.

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