The U.S. Congress has proposed a visa ban and asset freeze against former Kano governor Rabiu Kwankwaso, members of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore and other Fulani groups, among a slew of sanctions meant to pressure the Nigerian government into ending the alleged persecution of Christians.

The Congress identified Mr Kwankwaso and Miyetti Allah groups as the unrepentant violators masterminding attacks on the Christian faithful in northern Nigeria in the bill submitted on Tuesday.

Chris Smith, chair of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee, and Riley Moore submitted a proposed bill, the Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026, to the U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday, suggesting sanctions to keep President Bola Tinubu’s government on its toes.

The bill is aimed at mounting pressure on Mr Tinubu’s administration to curtail the targeted killings of Christians, which Mr Trump has repeatedly called a “genocide”.

“The Department of State and the Department of Treasury should impose targeted sanctions, including visa bans and asset freezes under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, on individuals and entities responsible for severe religious violations,” stated the bill proposed by Republican representatives Messrs Smith and Moore.

The bill named violators such as “Fulani ethnic nomad militia, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Kano governor, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore” to the State Department.

The bill chronicled incidents of religious violations, citing the Plateau massacre in October 2025 and the death sentence of Sunday Jackson, a farmer who spent a decade in prison and was on death row for killing a Fulani herder in self-defence. He was pardoned in 2025 after the U.S. government intervened.

Messrs Smith and Moore further proposed that the State Department scrutinise the activities of Fulani militias to determine whether the U.S. should consider them a foreign terrorist organisation.

The congressmen further called on the State Department to investigate sponsors of the Fulani militias and hold them to account.

President Donald Trump redesignated Nigeria a ‘country of particular concern’ over the alleged genocide of Christians in 2025. He blamed Mr Tinubu’s administration for not protecting the Christians in the West African nation.

On Christmas Day, the U.S. launched airstrikes in Sokoto to bomb terrorists’ hideouts, an operation Nigeria’s first lady Remi Tinubu called “a blessing”.

Meanwhile, Mr Trump has announced plans to deploy 200 U.S. soldiers to Nigeria to support the West African country’s counter-terrorism efforts.