{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415124", "Catholic News Agency article on Smith's House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee hearing on Nigeria'Nigerian bishop calls for U.S. military intervention at congressional hearing'", "2025-11-21", "2025", "2025-11", "Republican", "House", "NJ", "Christopher H. Smith", "S000522", "chrissmith.house.gov", "chrissmith", "https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentquery.aspx", "scraper", "By Madalaine Elhabbal\n\nPublished November 21, 2025 at 14:40 PM\n\nA Nigerian Catholic bishop said U.S. military intervention is warranted at a Nov. 20 hearing of the U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa.\n\nThe hearing took place just days after an attack on a Catholic boarding school in western Nigeria in which children were abducted from the school\u2019s hostel.\n\n\u201cNigeria is ground zero\u201d for religious persecution, said the subcommittee\u2019s chair, Rep. Chris Smith, R-New Jersey, at the hearing. \u201cMake no mistake, these ongoing attacks are based on religion, and diverting attention from it denies what we have seen with our own eyes.\u201d\n\nBishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Diocese of Makurdi, Benue, Nigeria, told the panel via Zoom that the United States must follow Nigeria\u2019s addition on the watch list with concrete action.\n\nBishop Wilfred Anagbe of the Nigerian Diocese of Makurdi in Benue state at a breakfast at Capitol Hill organized by Aid to the Church in Need, Jan. 30, 2024. | Credit: Peter Pinedo/CNA\n\n\u201cWithout quick intervention, Christianity risks elimination in parts of northern and Middle Belt Nigeria within a very short time,\u201d the bishop said, noting that while designation as a country of particular concern (CPC) has \u201cbrought immense joy, hope, and spiritual resilience to communities under siege in Nigeria,\u201d the Church cannot stop persecution alone.\n\n\u201cIt requires coordinated political, military, and humanitarian intervention,\u201d the bishop said. \u201cMr. Chairman and members, the blood of Nigerian Christians cries out to you. We cannot afford to wait any longer.\u201d\n\nThe hearing highlighted ongoing religious persecution of Christians in Nigeria by groups including Boko Haram and the Muslim extremist Fulani herdsmen, and examined how the U.S. State Department could apply pressure on the Nigerian government to tamp down religious persecution.\n\nPresident Donald Trump announced on Oct. 31 he would place Nigeria on the U.S. religious freedom violation watch list and designate it as a CPC.\n\nUnder the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998, the U.S president must designate countries that engage in or tolerate \u201cparticularly severe violations of religious freedom\u201d as CPCs. Violations include torture, prolonged detention without charges, and forced disappearence, according to the State Department.\n\nThe bishop recounted ongoing attacks in Nigeria\u2019s Middle Belt states by Fulani militia as well as in his own village of Aondona in Gwer West LGA, which resulted in the deaths of several of his relatives on May 22.\n\nAgnabe urged the U.S. to use all of the tools at its disposal to aid Nigeria and to \u201cenact concrete actions,\u201d including the use of targeted sanctions under the Magnitsky Act and the expansion of humanitarian aid for internal displacement camps.\n\n\u201cWe all know that inaction emboldens the extremists even more,\u201d he said.\n\nSmith called for the U.S. government to place conditions on foreign aid and to provide humanitarian assistance to faith-based groups working to help displaced people in the Middle Belt region. He further called for the Trump administration to impose targeted sanctions under the Magnitsky Act, including visa bans and asset freezes on individuals and entities \u201cresponsible for these gross human rights abuses.\u201d\n\nSmith cited statistics from Open Doors, which found that Nigeria has persecuted and slaughtered more Christians than anywhere in the world. Smith also said about 52,000 Christians have been targeted and killed, in addition to 34,000 moderate Muslims, since 2009.\n\nThe U.S. House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa hears testimony about Nigeria on Nov. 20, 2025. Credit: Madalaine Elhabbal/CNA\n\nRep. Riley Moore, R-West Virginia, whom Trump charged with reporting to him about Nigeria, at the hearing called for the disarmament of Fulani militants in Nigeria.\n\nDemocratic House members said at the hearing that persecution in Nigeria is not limited to Christians and agreed that the Nigerian government has failed to halt attacks.\n\nRep. Sara Jacobs, D-California, said she opposed Trump\u2019s pledge to employ military action in Nigeria and cautioned against viewing ongoing violence in Nigeria as \u201cmerely religious.\u201d She encouraged State Department officials to \u201cuse the [diplomatic] tools in our toolbox\u201d before resorting to controlled strikes in the region.", 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=415124"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8560088463127613, "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"}