Nigeria rejects allegations of Christian genocide from US lawmakers

Senator Ted Cruz introduced a bill outlining enforcement measures to address the persecution of Christians, including restrictions on access to US visas for implicated Nigerian officials.

Nigerian officials objected to allegations that Christians face genocide in the country, made by US lawmakers urging the government to designate it a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC).

Texas Senator Ted Cruz and four members of the House of Representatives alleged that the US could identify those responsible for the alleged genocide, and that a CPC designation under the International Religious Freedom Act could allow it to hold them accountable.

“The United States knows who those people are, and I intend to hold them accountable,” Cruz said in a social media post last week. “Since 2009, over 50,000 Christians in Nigeria have been massacred, and over 18,000 churches and 2,000 Christian schools have been destroyed.”

Nigeria was designated a CPC in December 2020 under the first Trump administration, but this revoked the following year because its government was not deemed to be “engaged” in the violations.

Cruz introduced a bill in the US Senate on 11 September titled “Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 (S.2747)”, aiming to “hold accountable Nigerian officials who facilitate Islamist jihadist violence and the imposition of blasphemy laws”.

It was a response to what he described as the systematic persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in Nigeria by Islamist Boko Haram and Fulani militants. He also alleged government complicity through weak policing and the enforcement of blasphemy laws.

The bill mandates executive action and outlines enforcement measures, including restrictions on access to US visas or financial assistance for implicated Nigerian officials.

It also directs the US State Department to submit annual reports to Congress on Nigeria’s religious freedom record, including its progress on prosecuting perpetrators.

Several other members of Congress also called for action in recent days. Riley Moore, a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote to the Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging immediate action to stop the “systematic persecution and slaughter of Christians” in Nigeria.

He described Nigeria as “the deadliest place in the world to be a Christian” and accused its Federal Government of complicity through inaction and corruption.

Idaho Senator Jim Risch, who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wrote on social media that decisive action was long overdue on what he called a “tragedy and disgrace” for religious freedom in Africa.

“Faith should never be a death sentence. Yet across parts of Africa, Christians are hunted, butchered, and terrorised for their beliefs while the world looks away,” he said last Thursday.

“In countries like Nigeria, DR Congo, and Mozambique, they are targeted by terrorists, exploited by elites to settle political and ethnic scores, and abandoned – or betrayed – by their own governments. This is not just a tragedy. It is a disgrace. Action is long overdue.”

Kimiebi Ebienfa, a spokesperson for Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told reporters over the weekend that the government was taking multiple measures through diplomatic channels to respond to what he said were misrepresentations, echoing the Nigerian National Assembly’s rejection of such allegations.

“We have reached out to the US government explaining that the allegations are not true,” he said. “We have done that through our missions in Washington and even Atlanta.”

He referred to a report on killings in Nigeria commissioned in April by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Yusuf Tuggar, which he said offered an unbiased study of violence across the country.

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