Members of several House committees held a roundtable on religious persecution in Nigeria on Tuesday, following President Donald Trump’s request to identify ways Congress can support the White House’s efforts to curb persecution reportedly being carried out by Islamist rebels.
The hearing, which was spearheaded by House Appropriations Committee Vice Chairman and national security subcommittee Chairman Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL), joined by fellow appropriators and members of the Foreign Affairs and Financial Services committees, was held to draft a comprehensive report for the White House on steps the U.S. government can take to continue to combat the alleged persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
“As part of this investigation, the committee is hosting a roundtable to continue building on the work we’ve done so far,” Vice Chairman of the House Appropriations legislative branch subcommittee Riley Moore (R-WV) wrote on X on Monday.
“We will never turn a blind eye to our brothers and sisters in Christ who suffer for their faith,” Moore added.
Moore and his colleagues heard testimonies from U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom Chairwoman Vicky Hartzler, Sean Nelson, a lawyer for Alliance Defending Freedom International, and Ebenezer Obadare, a senior fellow for Africa Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, during the roundtable.
The president’s request to hold the roundtable comes after Trump redesignated Nigeria a “country of concern” after it was reported that Christians were being killed in mass numbers by Islamist terrorists.
“The 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!” Trump wrote on Oct. 31.
Violence targeting Christians has plagued Nigeria in recent years. Reports from human rights groups and lawmakers have alleged that Islamist rebels like Boko Haram have killed at least 50,000 Christians in the West African nation since 2009.
The International Religious Freedom Commission, which was present at the roundtable, is led by Ambassador-designate Mark Walker, who serves in the State Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom. The commission has made it a priority to combat the persecution of religion in Nigeria and elsewhere.
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“The Nigerian military wants to tell you they’re combating Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province in the north,” Walker previously told the Washington Examiner in an interview. “But the Nigerian security forces do very little to stop the violence at the hands of these Fulani ethnic militias there in the Middle Belt.”
“The numbers just don’t simply add up,” he added, explaining that Christians are murdered at a 5-to-1 rate compared to those of other religions. “This wouldn’t be the case if Nigeria swiftly responded to the threat that Islamic terrorists pose to its population, Christian or otherwise.”
