{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415106", "Fox News article on Smith's House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee hearing on Nigeria'Lawmakers sound alarm on \"deadliest place on earth to be a Christian\" as Nigeria violence escalates'", "2025-11-20", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Efrat Lachter\n\nPublished November 20, 2025 at 7:09 PM EST\n\nThe U.S. House Subcommittee on Africa held a hearing Thursday on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria in what subcommittee Chairman Chris Smith, R-N.J., described as the \"systematic and accelerating violence against predominantly Christian communities in Nigeria.\"\n\nMembers from both parties questioned administration officials and outside experts as witness after witness described the collapse of security, mass killings, kidnappings and the impunity that has turned Africa\u2019s most populous country into what one lawmaker called \"the deadliest place on Earth to be a Christian.\"\n\nSmith, who has long been sounding the alarm about the persecution of Christians in the country, described the situation in vivid terms.\n\nChristians hold signs as they march on the streets of Abuja during a prayer and penance for peace and security in Nigeria in Abuja on March 1, 2020. - The Catholic Bishops of Nigeria gathered faithfuls as well as other Christians and other people to pray for security and to denounce the barbaric killings of Christians by the Boko Haram insurgents and the incessant cases of kidnapping for ransom in Nigeria. (Photo by KOLA SULAIMON/AFP via Getty Images)\n\n\"Nigeria is ground zero, the focal point of the most brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world today,\" he said.\n\nHe called the session \"a very critical hearing,\" noting it was his 12th such hearing and that he has led three human rights trips to the country.\n\nQuoting earlier testimony from Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Makurdi Diocese, Smith cited militants who \"kill and boast about it \u2026 kidnap and rape and enjoy total impunity from elected officials.\"\n\nHe highlighted a June 13 attack in Yola, saying reports showed \"278 people \u2014 men, women and children \u2014 were killed in a manner too gory to describe by people shouting \u2018Allahu Akbar\u2019 while slaughtering their victims.\"\n\n\"This is not random violence. It is deliberate persecution,\" Smith said. \"There may be other factors, but religion is driving this.\"\n\nSmith also noted that moderate Muslims who speak out against extremists are often murdered as well, underscoring the scope of Nigeria\u2019s \"culture of denial.\"\n\nAt least 51 Christians were killed in another attack in Nigeria's Plateau state. (Reuters)\n\nRep. Sara Jacobs, D-Calif., the panel\u2019s ranking member, agreed Nigeria faces devastating insecurity but warned against \"oversimplistic narratives.\"\n\nShe cited overlapping drivers \u2014 extremist insurgencies, farmer-herder conflict and organized banditry \u2014 and said the 25 girls recently kidnapped in Kebbi state were all Muslim.\n\n\"Violence affects everyone,\" she said. \"False narratives erase the real drivers of violence and make it harder to find solutions.\"\n\nShe condemned President Trump\u2019s remarks about \"going into Nigeria guns blazing,\" calling such rhetoric reckless and illegal and said unilateral U.S. military action would be \"counterproductive.\"\n\nJacobs claimed the Trump administration cut peace-building and conflict-prevention tools that once helped reduce violence, programs, she said, \"that proactively prevented and directly addressed the violence this administration is now concerned about.\"\n\nWomen and children held captive by Islamic extremists and rescued by the Nigerian army arrive in Maiduguri, Nigeria, May 20, 2024. (AP Photo/Jossy Olatunji)\n\nRep. John James, R-Mich., described Nigeria\u2019s crisis in stark terms.\n\n\"This is one of the gravest religious freedom crises in the world,\" he said. \"The deadliest place on earth to be a Christian.\"\n\nHe cited estimates that nearly 17,000 Christians have been killed since 2019, calling the murders \"a sustained pattern of religiously motivated violence, often ignored or even enabled by the Nigerian government.\"\n\nAppearing on video from Benue state, Bishop Wilfred Anagbe detailed church burnings, mass displacement and priests targeted for abduction.\n\n\"Nigeria remains the deadliest place on earth to be a Christian,\" Anagbe said. \"More believers are killed there annually than in the rest of the world combined.\"\n\nHe thanked the administration for putting Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious freedom violations but urged that it be backed with sanctions and greater humanitarian support for displaced civilians.\n\nTwo senior state department officials, Jonathan Pratt and Jacob McGee, defended the administration\u2019s approach while acknowledging the horror of the attacks.\n\nPratt called the situation \"a very serious security problem,\" saying the U.S. seeks to \"raise the protection of Christians to the top of the Nigerian government\u2019s priorities.\"\n\nMcGee added, \"The levels of violence and atrocities committed against Christians are appalling. \u2026 Nigerians are being attacked and killed because of their faith.\"\n\nHe pointed to blasphemy laws in 12 northern states that can carry the death penalty, calling them \"unacceptable in a free and democratic society.\"\n\nOnlookers gather around a car destroyed in a blast next to St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Nigeria, Dec. 25, 2011, after an explosion ripped through a Catholic Church during Christmas Mass near Nigeria's capital. (Associated Press)\n\nBoth officials said the U.S. is developing a plan to \"incentivize and compel\" the Nigerian government to protect religious communities.\n\nIn one exchange between Rep. Marlin Stutzman, R-Ind., and an expert on Nigeria, he asked bluntly, \"Ma\u2019am, are we frenemies? Are we \u2014 what are we?\"\n\nOge Onubogu, director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, replied, \"We\u2019re friends.\"\n\nShe added that U.S.\u2013Nigeria engagement must be \"from a place of honesty\" and that Nigerians \"acknowledge something must be done quickly about the levels of insecurity.\"\n\nOnubogu warned, however, that a \"narrow narrative that reduces Nigeria\u2019s security situation to a single story\" could deepen divisions.\n\nStutzman pressed her further, noting, \"If Nigeria\u2019s government cannot stop the violence, they should be willing to ask the international community for help.\"\n\nPeople gather July 2, 2014, where a car bomb exploded at the central market in Maiduguri, Nigeria, the birthplace of terror group Boko Haram. (AP Photo/Jossy Ola)", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T19:52:45Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415106"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0295668616890907, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}