Catholic Bishops Issue Call to Action in Nigeria

The bishops also called out local security forces for failing to respond and stop the targeted killings.

“In some instances, there have been disturbing reports of delayed or withheld security responses, giving the impression of possible collusion or a lack of will to act,” the bishops noted.

“Such unbearable conditions have given credence to allegations of ‘genocide’ in some quarters,” the bishops said, adding that they are also “deeply concerned that Muslims and many other innocent citizens of diverse ethnic background have also been victims of this same cruelty that continues to desecrate our common humanity.”

President Trump and his administration in recent weeks have lashed out at the Nigerian government, headed by President Bola Tinubu, a Muslim, for having “done nothing” to stop the slayings of Christians.

“I’m really angry about it,” Trump told Fox News Radio last Friday. “What’s happening in Nigeria is a disgrace.”

War Secretary Pete Hegseth met with Nigerian National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu last week after threats from Trump to cut off aid to Nigeria if its government continues to allow the killings and abductions to continue unabated.

Twenty-four girls who were abducted from a boarding school in northwestern Nigeria last week have been released, the state governor’s media said on Tuesday. Armed bandits seized the girls on Nov. 17 from their boarding school in Kebbi state. One of the school administrators was killed while trying to block the doorway to the school.

The attack spurred copycat kidnappings in Kwara and Niger states, the latest in a wave of mass adductions and attacks that have drawn worldwide scrutiny. Earlier this week, armed men kidnapped more than 300 students at a private Catholic school in the country’s north-central Niger State.

Tinubu on Tuesday welcomed the release of the girls captured on Nov. 17 and called on security forces to redouble efforts to free those still held captive.

“I am relieved that all the 24 girls have been accounted for,” Tinubu said. “Now we must put, as a matter of urgency, more boots on the ground in the vulnerable areas to avert further incidents of kidnapping. My government will offer all the assistance needed to achieve this.”

Tinubu, who was elected in 2023 and faces reelection in 2027, is viewed as a far more honest broker than his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, a Muslim who shared his heritage with the Fulani ethnic group responsible for most of the attacks on Nigerian Christians. Tinubu’s wife is a Christian, which likely has tempered his approach.

Nigerians have for years faced the continual threat of attacks and kidnappings, which help fund Islamist terrorist groups. Roaming bandits target people who will pay ransoms, and they’ve learned that Christians and religious leaders will respond with higher payments than others.

For these reasons, some groups, including the Vatican, have pushed back on the narrative that the slaughter of Christians is primarily religious persecution. According to Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s secretary of state, the root causes are “social” in nature rather than fully religious. The Trump administration rejects that assessment, arguing it’s a war on Christians by mainly Muslim extremist groups.

Regardless of the cause, the impact is alarming. Nigeria remains the world leader when it comes to the killing of Christians. 

For years, religious freedom advocates have called on the U.S. government to address the slaughter of Christians in Nigeria. Trump, in his first term, designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern,” but President Biden reversed that decision. In late October, Trump once again redesignated Nigeria as a CPC and vowed to do everything in his power, including have the U.S. military come in “guns blazin’,” to stop the violence.

While U.S. military intervention is unlikely in the short term, State Department officials are not taking any options off the table.

Rep. Chris Smith, a New Jersey Republican, has called for increased sanctions against the Tinubu government if the killings and kidnappings don’t stop.

“I think first and foremost, we need to completely eviscerate this culture of denial that the leadership in Nigeria has perpetuated for well over a decade,” Smith told Fox News earlier this week. “I had a hearing back in 2012 when Boko Haram was killing Christians and moderate Muslims, doing it with impunity, and we got nothing but crickets from people at the White House during many, many years under both [President] Obama and then, especially under Biden, there was a hands-off approach.”

Smith lauded Trump for focusing on the issue and demanding action.

“Had he not done this, it would be business as usual, and we would see the slaughter and the genocide continue unabated,” Smith said.