Agency Report
The United States has said Nigeria has yet to make sufficient progress in addressing attacks on Christian communities, warning that the country’s designation as a Country of Particular Concern should remain in place.
Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Frank Garcia, stated this while responding to questions from US Congressman Riley Moore during a congressional hearing on violence in Nigeria on Thursday.
Moore had questioned the Nigerian government’s efforts to dismantle militia strongholds and kidnapping camps in the Middle Belt, particularly in Benue and Plateau states, and demanded to know what operations had been conducted since US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Allison Hooker, raised concerns about the pace of Nigeria’s response in August.
He also questioned why Benue and Plateau were not included among the 10 states covered by Nigeria’s new forest guard initiative, despite the persistent attacks in the two states, and noted that 1,000 presidentially approved guards for Plateau had yet to be deployed.
The congressman said the US should not remove Nigeria from the CPC list, arguing that the country had not done enough to address the violence.
“Before you answer that, we cannot take this CPC designation off of this country. They have not done enough,” Moore said.
Responding, Garcia acknowledged that Nigeria had not made sufficient progress, but said the government was taking steps to address the concerns, although the measures had yet to produce the desired impact.
“I think we would agree, as Under Secretary Hooker stated, after our CPC meeting that progress has not been there, but that doesn’t mean that Nigeria is dismissing concerns, and it doesn’t mean that they’re not taking actions, but it does mean that it hasn’t had an impact to this point,” he said.
Garcia identified the establishment of the US-Nigeria Joint Working Group as an important step towards ensuring accountability, saying it would provide a framework for monitoring the Nigerian government’s commitments and assessing results.
He also acknowledged US-supported counterterrorism operations in the Lake Chad Basin but said such efforts had not necessarily addressed the activities of Fulani militants operating across the Middle Belt.
“I would have to characterise the Nigerians’ placement at this point as in building capacity. And that capacity is not deployed, is not being effective yet, and is not moving fast enough, as far as I’m concerned. But we do see a seriousness, and a deployment underway with the Nigerian government,” Garcia said.
In his prepared testimony, Garcia said the administration of President Donald Trump had treated the persecution of Christians in Nigeria as a priority since the country was redesignated a Country of Particular Concern on October 31, 2025.
He said the violence had continued despite diplomatic engagements, citing a July 27 attack on a Christian community in Kaduna State and killings in Plateau State in August and September.
“Unfortunately, the violence has not stopped,” Garcia said, describing the attacks as an ongoing atrocity.
He said the US had engaged Nigeria through the Joint Working Group, which held its first meeting in Abuja in January and another in Washington in August, to push for increased security deployments in vulnerable Middle Belt communities, faster responses to early warnings, accountability for perpetrators and deeper military cooperation.
Garcia said the US had also provided training and equipment to police units tasked with protecting vulnerable communities through its Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.
He added that Washington had expanded biometric information-sharing with Nigeria to help identify and prosecute perpetrators and had worked with Nigerian financial institutions on an action plan to disrupt terrorist financing networks funding attacks on churches.
The assistant secretary said Hooker had, during the group’s second meeting, pressed Nigeria on civilian casualties, the safe and voluntary return of internally displaced persons and greater transparency in humanitarian aid expenditure and delivery.
Garcia, however, acknowledged that Nigeria’s security architecture remained stretched and that judicial access to parts of the Middle Belt was limited.
He said the US would continue to use diplomatic engagements, the CPC designation and targeted security cooperation to push for the protection of Christian communities and accountability for those responsible for attacks.
The Federal government have consistently rejected claims of a “Christian genocide” or targeted religious persecution, maintaining instead that the country’s widespread violence is driven by broader security crises, banditry, terrorism, and resource conflicts that affect citizens of all faiths.
