The United States has blacklisted Nigeria, placing her and nine others
as Countries of Particular Concern, under the International Religious
Freedom Act of 1998 as amended for engaging in or tolerating
“systematic, ongoing, egregious violation of religious freedom,” U.S
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement issued Monday.
According to a report last December by the United Kingdom-based
Humanitarian Aid Relief Trust, more than 1,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria in 2019. The organization further reported that at that point
6,000 Nigerians had been killed and 12,000 displaced since 2015.
Insecurity still remains one of Nigeria’s biggest challenges, according
to the Institute for Security Studies. Across Nigeria, millions of
Christians are living in fear because of the growing attacks by armed
men or cattle herders from the Fulani ethnic group.
Abductions and killings by the cattle herders are frequent and random in
Nigeria, and Christian ethnic groups are the main victims. The herders
are Muslims who make regular journeys with their cattle to pastures down south—an area mostly dominated by Christians.
Members of the Shia Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) have since 2015 suffered violent crackdowns by the Nigerian Military.
On December 12, 2015, the Nigerian army used disproportionate force
against the group’s street procession in Zaria, Kaduna State in
northwest Nigeria to clear a route for the army chief’s convoy. In an
ensuing three-day violent crackdown, the army killed 347 members of the group and arrested hundreds more, including the group’s leader, Sheikh Ibrahim El Zakzaky, and his wife, Ibraheemat.
In a statement dated December 7, 2020, designating Nigeria as a country
of concern, Pompeo said “Religious freedom is an inalienable right and
the bedrock upon which free societies are built and flourish. Today, the
United States – a nation founded by those fleeing religious persecution,
as the recent Commission on Unalienable Rights report noted – once again took action to defend those who simply want to exercise this essential freedom.
“The United States is designating Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria,
the DPRK, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as
Countries of Particular Concern under the International Religious
Freedom Act of 1998, as amended, for engaging in or tolerating
“systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom.”
“We are also placing the Comoros, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Russia on a
Special Watch List for governments that have engaged in or tolerated
“severe violations of religious freedom.” Additionally, we are
designating al-Shabaab, al-Qa’ida, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis, ISIS, ISIS-Greater Sahara, ISIS-West Africa, Jamaat Nasr
al-Islam wal Muslimin, and the Taliban as Entities of Particular Concern
under the Frank R. Wolf International Religious Freedom Act of 2016.
“We have not renewed the prior Entity of Particular Concern designations for al-Qa’ida in the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS-Khorasan, due to the total loss of territory formerly controlled by these terrorist
organizations. While these two groups no longer meet the statutory
criteria for designation, we will not rest until we have fully
eliminated the threat of religious freedom abuses by any violent
extremist and terrorist groups.
“There are also positive developments to share. I am pleased to announce that Sudan and Uzbekistan have been removed from the Special Watch List based on significant, concrete progress undertaken by their respective governments over the past year. Their courageous reforms of their laws and practices stand as models for other nations to follow.
“And yet our work is far from complete. The United States will continue
to work tirelessly to end religiously motivated abuses and persecution
around the world, and to help ensure that each person, everywhere, at
all times, has the right to live according to the dictates of
conscience.”
