{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=415125", "Breitbart article on Smith's House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee hearing on Nigeria'Nigerian Bishop Thanks Trump, Details Bloody Christian Genocide to Congress'", "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 Frances Martel\n\nPublished November 21, 2025\n\nNigerian Bishop Wilfred Anagbe, of the diocese of Makurdi in Benue state, testified before the House of Representatives on Thursday, detailing the \u201cgory\u201d violence Christians face regularly in the country and thanking President Donald Trump for designating Nigeria a religious freedom danger zone.\n\nPresident Trump announced on October 31 that he would return Nigeria to the State Department\u2019s Country of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious freedom list, where he had initially placed it in 2020. Former President Joe Biden removed the notorious label for unclear reasons in 2021. In his announcement, Trump described \u201cmass slaughter\u201d in the country by organized jihadists against Christian communities, urging the Nigerian government to act to protect vulnerable Christians.\n\n\u201cChristianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,\u201d he wrote. \u201cThe United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!\u201d\n\nNigerian President Bola Tinubu responded to the designation by denying the existence of any religious discrimination in the country and insisting that general \u201cinstability\u201d also affects Muslim Nigerians.\n\nLUIS TATO/AFP via Getty\n\nBishop Anagbe addressed Congress for a hearing on Christian persecution in Nigeria at the House Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ). He extensively listed individual attacks by jihadists, most of them organized Fulani jihadist gangs, in which the terrorists burned down churches, displaced millions of Christians, and killed and abducted large numbers of the local population in the Middle Belt.\n\nNigeria\u2019s population is almost evenly split between Muslims in the north, about 60 percent, and Christians in the south, about 40 percent. The Middle Belt, where the populations meet, has become the focal point of much of this jihadist violence as radical Muslims attempt to steal and destroy Christian farmland and replace the local population. Benue, where Bishop Anagbe is located, and Plateau are the states most often identified as being under jihadist siege despite high indigenous Christian populations.\n\nAnagbe, who also addressed Congress in March, noted that \u201cthousands more have been displaced, some abducted or subjected, churches destroyed\u201d since his last check-in with U.S. lawmakers. He described an attack displacing an entire Catholic convent, a \u201cwave of violence in the region during Holy Week targeting Christians as they prepared to celebrate one of the most holy important feasts in our church.\u201d The attackers regularly shout \u201callahu akbar,\u201d he noted, a clear sign of the motivation behind the slaughter.\n\nIn one attack in Benue in May, the bishop detailed, \u201cone of my priests \u2026 was shot and left to die in a pool of his blood \u2026 though he survived the attack, he is unable to walk freely because he has a broken bone.\u201d\n\n\u201cThis is the daily experience of many Christians in Nigeria. Violence is spreading southward, displacing millions and destroying farmland, creating a humanitarian crisis compounded by food insecurity,\u201d he narrated. \u201cAttacks by Fulani militants, Boko Haram, Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) have intensified not only in the Middle Belt \u2026 spreading southward and targeting Christian communities with impunity.\u201d\n\n\u201cWe hoped the CPC designation by President Trump at the end of October might stabilize the situation, but instead it is deteriorating into one of the most lethal periods for Nigeria in recent memory,\u201d he observed.\n\nBishop Anagbe thanked President Trump, \u201con behalf of millions of Christians in Nigeria and the diaspora,\u201d for the designation, however, and Rep. Smith, who has consistently brought forth concerns about Nigerian Christians to Congress.\n\n\u201cIt is a vital step that must be backed by serious action,\u201d he asserted.\n\nThe increased violence, he argued, was not the result of just the designation but of the Nigerian government\u2019s behavior.\n\n\u201cLike it is now commonly acknowledged, Nigeria remains the deadliest place on earth to be a Christian. More believers are killed there annually than in the rest of the world combined,\u201d he explained. \u201cYet \u2026 the Nigerian government\u2019s response to the CPC designation is to unleash vainglorious speakers and willing tools to spin the narrative and make false equivalences of Muslim deaths.\u201d\n\n\u201cWho is killing the Muslims up north? Is there any Christian militia displacing millions and occupying lands in Nigeria?\u201d he asked. \u201cThe government of Nigeria\u2019s silence and refusal to engage in the face of continued killings and displacements have deepened feelings of abandonment among the people.\u201d\n\n\u201cThe national leadership appears disengaged, treating a Christian genocide \u2026 as a non-issue instead of considering it a national emergency,\u201d the bishop continued. \u201cThis lack of political will undermines trust in political institutions and fuels perceptions of complicity or indifference.\u201d\n\nWhile describing President Trump\u2019s designation as bringing \u201cimmense joy, hope, and spiritual resilience to communities under siege,\u201d Bishop Anagbe offered recommendations for concrete actions to support the move, including the use of the Global Magnitsky Act to sanction individuals in power who fail to curtail the violence, pressuring Nigeria at the United Nations, and \u201cpolitical, military, and humanitarian intervention.\u201d\n\n\u201cAmerica has a unique role in defending religious freedom globally,\u201d he affirmed.\n\nAlso testifying before the committee on behalf of the executive branch was senior African Affairs official at the State Department Jonathan Pratt, who emphasized that Washington pursued a positive relationship with the government of Nigeria even while speaking out about its apathy towards Christian attacks.\n\n\u201cThe intent of the administration\u2019s approach is to raise the protection of Christians to the top of the government of Nigeria\u2019s priorities, especially in the Middle Belt,\u201d Pratt explained. \u201cNigeria is a key regional partner, Africa\u2019s largest democracy, and most populous nation \u2013 with whom we share economic and security interests. It in the United States\u2019 interest to work with the Nigerian government on a plan of action.\u201d\n\nAlso representing the State Department was Deputy Assistant Secretary Jacob McGee of the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, who condemned Abuja not just for failure to act but for allowing the imposition of sharia, or Islamic law, on non-Muslim communities.\n\n\u201cNigerian officials continue to prosecute individuals for alleged blasphemy, which stands in clear violation of Nigeria\u2019s obligation to safeguard free speech,\u201d he explained. \u201cUnder the sharia penal codes enforced in 12 of its states, Nigeria is one of only eight countries in the world that allows for penalties up to execution for blasphemy, along with Iran and Pakistan.\u201d", 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=415125"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9358148090541363, "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"}