NIGERIA: US CONGRESS SCHEDULES HEARING ON CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION THURSDAY
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By ‘Balogun Ibrahim
The United States House of Representatives is scheduled to hold a congressional hearing on Thursday to examine the Nigerian government’s efforts to protect Christians and tackle insecurity in the country’s Middle Belt region.
The session will be chaired by Republican lawmaker Chris Smith, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa.
Smith’s office announced the hearing in a statement published on his official website on Monday and cited by PUNCH Online on Tuesday.
Titled “One Year Later: Assessing Nigeria’s Efforts to Protect Christians and Secure the Middle Belt”, the hearing will examine religious violence by extremist groups, the Nigerian government’s response and measures to safeguard vulnerable communities.
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According to the statement, lawmakers will assess “the current state of religious violence perpetrated by radical Islamists, such as Boko Haram and Fulani terrorists, against Christians in Nigeria”.
The session will also examine the Nigerian government’s efforts to address alleged religious persecution, hold perpetrators of violence accountable and protect Christian and moderate Muslim communities.
Additionally, the lawmakers will consider possible actions the United States could take to ensure Nigerian authorities address and prevent violence attributed to Islamist extremist groups.
The hearing is scheduled to begin at 11 am local time at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC, and will be streamed live on YouTube.
The first panel will feature two officials from the US Department of State: Frank Garcia, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Riley Barnes, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour.
The second panel will comprise Nina Shea, Senior Fellow and Director of the Centre for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute; Ryan Brown, Chief Executive Officer of Open Doors US; and Oge Onubogu, Director and Senior Fellow of the Africa Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
Smith’s office described the upcoming session as his 14th congressional hearing on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
The hearing comes amid growing scrutiny of Nigeria’s security situation by US lawmakers and the administration of President Donald Trump.
In November 2025, Trump redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern over alleged severe violations of religious freedom, following accusations that the Nigerian government had failed to adequately protect Christians from attacks.
Nigeria was initially designated a Country of Particular Concern in December 2020 during Trump’s first administration.
However, the administration of former President Joe Biden removed the country from the list in November 2021, arguing that it no longer met the criteria for the designation.
The classification is made under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 and applies to countries the US government considers to have engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.
The Nigerian government has consistently rejected descriptions of the country’s insecurity as primarily religious persecution.
It maintains that the security challenges are complex and involve terrorism, banditry, farmer-herder conflicts and other forms of criminal violence affecting both Christian and Muslim communities.
As part of a joint counterterrorism initiative between Nigeria and the United States, the US military conducted strikes against Islamic State targets in northwestern Nigeria on December 25, 2025.
Trump said the operation was intended to target militants responsible for attacks on Christians.
Studies have, however, identified several factors contributing to violence in Nigeria, including Islamist insurgency, farmer-herder clashes, banditry and other forms of criminal activity.
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