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| Women mourning after worshippers died in an attack on a church in 2018 |
— WASHINGTON
A coalition of prominent Christian leaders has delivered a letter to President Donald Trump, urging him to return Nigeria to the U.S. government’s list of the world’s most severe violators of religious freedom.
In the letter dated October 15, the leaders call on Trump to redesignate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC), a status it held during his first term. They argue that the Nigerian government is failing to protect its Christian population from systematic violence.
The signatories, including San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone and several policy institute directors, claim that “militant Fulani Muslim herders” are conducting a violent campaign to “forcibly Islamicize” Nigeria’s Middle Belt region, targeting Christian farming families while the government “barely lifts a finger to protect them.”
The letter cites alarming statistics, alleging that at least 52,000 Christians have been killed since 2009 and thousands more in 2025 alone. It also accuses the Nigerian government of directly violating religious freedom by enforcing Islamic blasphemy laws.
The leaders expressed concern that the Trump administration might place Nigeria on a less severe “Special Watch List” instead, calling such a move a “weak and legally inadequate response” that would “dishonor religious freedom.”
Biden administration had removed Nigeria from the CPC list in 2021, a decision these groups are now urging the president to reverse.