The United States House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa Chairman, Chris Smith, has cleared the U.S. President Donald Trump to impose harsh sanctions on Nigeria over the killing of Christians in the West African country. 

The House Subcommittee reached the resolution following a Wednesday hearing regarding the prosecution of Christians in the West African nation, noting that the wanton violence against Christians in Nigeria had significantly worsened in recent years.

“One of our distinguished witnesses today—Bishop Wilfred Anagbe of the diocese of Makurdi, Nigeria— travelled a long distance to be with us today and will testify, and this is from his testimony. Militant Fulani herdsmen are terrorists,” Mr Smith said during the hearing on Wednesday.

He said, “They steal and vandalise, they kill and boast about it, they kidnap and rape, and they enjoy total impunity from the elected officials.  None of them have been arrested and brought to justice.”

The subcommittee noted that Nigerians constituted 90 per cent of Christians killed worldwide annually, citing a 2024 report by the Observatory for Religious Freedom in Africa showing out of the 55,910 people killed between October 2019 and September 2023, 21,000 of them were abducted in the context of terror groups.

“Make no mistake, all of these attacks are based on religion, like I said, and diverting attention from it denies what we have seen with our own eyes. This “religious cleansing” needs to stop, and the perpetrators be brought to justice,” the report noted.

The subcommittee blamed the Nigerian government for not doing enough to protect protest Christians from persecution even though freedom of religion is enshrined in the country’s constitution while decrying instances where Nigerian court system has been weaponised to punish Christian population. 

“Yet, the Government of Nigeria has failed to make progress against religiously motivated persecution of Christians despite religious freedom being enshrined as an essential human right in its Constitution,” the subcommittee noted in their report.

It added, “Likewise, Nigerian legal framework supports pluralism at both federal and state levels but glaring contradictions exist, especially with laws that criminalise blasphemy—some even carrying the death penalty.”

Mr Smith blamed the previous Joe Biden administration for removing Nigeria’s Country of Particular Concern (CPC) designation, which was placed on the country under first Donald Trump term at the White House despite U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom’s recommendations for four consecutive years between 2021 and 2024 to redesignate the country.

He recommended that Mr Trump should do more to help Christians in Nigeria, including placing the country on CPC designate on Nigeria and urged him to reach out to his Nigerian counterpart Bola Tinubu on the matter. 

Mr Smith also asked the Trump administration and the U.S. Senate to be ready to work together to impose sanctions if the killing of Christians doesn’t stop. 

“While I strongly believe that President Trump will again designate Nigeria a CPC—and do much more to assist the persecuted church including outreach to Nigerian President Tinubu —last night I reintroduced the resolution. I hope that we will have a robust discussion and that it will get marked up,” Mr Smith said. 

He added, “Let me also say that, and I’ll put the rest of my statement into the record, this hearing we’re hoping will be a catalyst for action by our own government and also by Congress and of course , above all, the Executive Branch. The new president has a lot to do and I think he’ll do this and then, if necessary, impose sanctions. Where that has happened, there has been change. Where it doesn’t happen, the status quo, the killing fields continue.”