On Oct. 15, a letter signed by some 30 U.S. Christian leaders was delivered to the White House. This letter urges President Donald Trump to have the U.S. Department of State designate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) for its ongoing incidents of anti-Christian violence.  

The CPC list, which identifies nations that either partake in or allow ongoing severe violations of religious freedom, seems a most suitable designation for a country that has the majority of Christians killed for their faith worldwide each year.  

But placing Nigeria on that list has proven peculiarly difficult. Although the CPC list has existed since 1999, Nigeria did not appear until 2020.  

Then, in 2021, Nigeria was taken off the list. This was a truly mystifying move. After all, it’s not like conditions have improved.  

The U.S. government’s reluctance to designate Nigeria a CPC “might stem from diplomatic considerations and strategic interests,” said Enweonwu O. Anthony, a researcher affiliated with the University of Nigeria, Enugu Campus. “Nigeria’s significant oil reserves and geopolitical importance might lead the U.S. to prioritize strategic interests over human rights concerns.”  

At this point, though, the violence and carnage have been so persistent that even people like Bill Maher — the thoroughly secular comedian and TV host who was mentioned in the letter — recently spoke out about the “systematic killing of Christians in Nigeria” and mainstream media’s inadequate coverage of the issue.  

As the letter points out, if someone like Maher — who clearly has no use for religion — is bringing attention to Nigeria’s anti-Christian violence, then things have clearly gotten out of control. 

“I think designating Nigeria as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ would be an important first step symbolically,” said Robert Fastiggi, professor of Dogmatic Theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan, who signed the letter delivered to the White House. “It would show that the USA is opposed to terrorism in the name of religion.”  

In the event Nigeria receives CPC designation, the ensuing question pertains to suitable penalties the U.S. government should place on Nigeria’s government to persuade them to make a less oppressive society for Christians. 

There are 15 possible punishments the U.S. government can impose on CPC countries. Many of these are economic in nature. When it comes to foreign policy, economic sanctions can be effective. However, there are multiple factors to consider before instituting them, particularly if the target is a country like Nigeria, which has many millions of people already in a dire financial predicament.  

“I would not be opposed to such economic sanctions as long as they do not penalize the innocent people of Nigeria,” Fastiggi said. “We don’t want to penalize the innocent along with the guilty. The effect of economic sanctions on the innocent should be investigated before imposing them.” 

The letter mentioned that there is “a range of other possible policy responses,” but was instead focused on first achieving CPC status for Nigeria and expressed concern that Nigeria — instead of the CPC designation — might receive the lesser designation of “Special Watch List,” which “would be a weak and legally inadequate response.” 

There is also the possibility that the U.S. declares Nigeria a CPC but then decides not to impose sanctions.  

“If sanctions are waived, I don’t think it’ll accomplish anything significant,” Anthony said. Aside from designating Nigeria as a CPC, he thinks other helpful penalties would include targeted sanctions under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, as well as restrictions on U.S. security assistance to Nigeria’s government.  

Other than how deadly the situation is for many Christians in Nigeria, one key takeaway from the letter is that anti-Christian violence is no longer just about Boko Haram rampaging around the North.  

As the letter makes clear, Nigeria’s main problem right now is a government that tolerates relentless attacks “against Christian farming families by militant Fulani Muslim herders, who appear intent on forcibly Islamizing the Middle Belt.” 

In that Middle Belt region is Benue state, one of the country’s 36 states. There, almost 1,000 Christians have been murdered this year alone, the letter reported.  

Technically, Nigeria has strict gun laws, but they are not enforced against the Fulani, leaving them far more well-armed than whoever they wish to victimize.  

Even in cases when authorities are alerted to impending attacks, “government security forces are typically unresponsive or ineffective,” remarked the letter, which added that, because of such circumstances, Fulani militants enjoy “complete impunity.” 

An additional designation that Anthony and other Nigerian Christians recommend is to list “Fulani jihadists” as an Entity of Particular Concern (EPC). This designation “could be beneficial in addressing the violence and atrocities committed against Christians and other non-Muslims in Nigeria,” Anthony added.  

“Muslim leaders in Nigeria should condemn the attacks against Christians in their country,” said Fastiggi, who added that, on an international level, “many Muslim leaders oppose the type of religious violence in the name of Islam that is taking place.” 

As the letter noted, more than 50,000 Nigerian Christians have been killed by Islamic extremists since 2009. Such violence has displaced millions of others, drastically lowering their quality of life. And the geographical range of the violence continues to expand, reaching further into majority-Christian areas.  

At a March 2025 U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa, Wilfred Anagbe, a Catholic bishop, stated that, “The experience of Christians in Nigeria can be summed up as a church under Islamist extermination.”  

The accuracy of his statement would receive the ultimate confirmation when, just a few months after his testimony, militant Fulani ransacked the bishop’s home village, slaughtering 12 of his relatives and dozens of other villagers.  

Bishop Anagbe himself received death threats immediately after giving his testimony. Clearly, the Fulani militants were listening. Many Christians in Nigeria can only hope the U.S. government was listening as well.  

International Christian Concern (ICC) released a report in July 224 outlining the concerning religious freedom conditions for Christians in Nigeria. The report thoroughly examines Nigeria’s glaring lack of religious freedom and makes the case for its CPC status.

In January 2024, ICC sent a letter to the U.S. Congress calling for a congressional hearing into the U.S. Department of State’s recent exclusion of Nigeria and India from its Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) list.

The letter, signed by more than 40 international religious freedom experts, called for accountability and transparency in U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s decision to omit the countries from the list. Signers of the letter include former members of Congress Frank Wolf (R-VA) and Dan Burton (R-IN), International Religious Freedom Secretariat President Nadine Maenza, Family Research Council’s Lela Gilbert, and Nina Shea from the Hudson Institute. 

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