Latest: US House Hearing Finds Nigeria Accounts for 72% of Christian Killings Worldwide

The United States House of Representatives heard on Thursday, 12 November 2026, that Nigeria now accounts for 72 percent of all faith-related killings of Christians worldwide — and that a year after Washington designated the country a Country of Particular Concern, the violence has not stopped. The hearing, held by the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, put Nigeria's government on the spot over its record in the Middle Belt, where Christian farming villages have faced wave after wave of attacks. One witness after another told the panel the same thing: the alarm was sounded a year ago, and nothing has changed.

The hearing occured one year after the designation, and it was titled "One Year Later: Assessing Nigeria's Efforts to Protect Christians and Secure the Middle Belt." Its chairman, Congressman Chris Smith, said it was his 14th congressional hearing focused on religious persecution in Nigeria. He opened with a blunt verdict on the year since the warning was issued.

"Today, just over one year later, we confront an even more troubling reality. The violence has not ended," Smith declared.

President Donald Trump designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern on 31 October 2025, citing what he described as an existential threat to Christianity and the killing of thousands of Christians by radical Islamist groups. Trump threatened military action against Nigeria last November. The Nigerian government rejected the designation, saying it was based on misinformation and faulty data.

Central to the hearing was the testimony of Nina Shea, a religious freedom advocate, who described Nigeria as the world's deadliest country for Christians targeted because of their faith. Quoting Shea's submission, Smith said Nigeria accounted for 72 percent of faith-related killings of Christians worldwide, according to figures from Open Doors. More than one million survivors of attacks have been forced from their homes, Shea said, and many still live in displacement camps with no livelihood and no clear way home.

The numbers behind that 72 percent are stark. Open Doors' 2026 World Watch List records 4,849 Christians killed worldwide for their faith between 1 October 2024 and 30 September 2025. Of those, 3,490 were Nigerians — up from 3,100 the year before. Nigeria ranks seventh on the list of the 50 countries where it is hardest to be a Christian.

Behind every one of those numbers is a family that still gathers to pray, even when the gathering itself has become dangerous. Faith in Nigeria's Middle Belt is not a Sunday habit; it is a daily decision to trust God with the morning and the night. That trust has not broken, and it is the reason the world keeps hearing these stories at all.

Nigeria 72 Percent of Christian Killings: What Nina Shea Told Congress

Shea told the panel that armed Fulani militants pose a major threat to Christian communities in the Middle Belt, particularly in Benue, Plateau, Kaduna and Taraba states. She said armed groups had repeatedly invaded rural Christian villages and farming settlements, killing and maiming residents, committing rape and abducting people, including church leaders, for ransom. She said the attacks showed patterns of organisation, coordination and financial support.

Smith listed armed Fulani militants, Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) among the groups behind the violence. He accused the Nigerian government of failing to protect Christian communities, and said the world had looked away for too long.

"For too long, the Nigerian Government and the world have looked away — a culture of denial — as radical Fulani militants, Boko Haram and ISIS/West Africa have waged a relentless campaign of terror, murder, and displacement across Nigeria," he said.

The hearing also heard from the State Department itself. Assistant Secretary of State Frank Garcia, speaking to the panel on Thursday, said the department was treating the issue as a top priority and working closely with Nigerian authorities. Then he gave the assessment that mattered most.

"Unfortunately, the violence has not stopped," Garcia said.

Assistant Secretary Riley Barnes told the panel that Nigeria had hired police, deployed forest guards and increased prosecutions and arrests since the designation. But those steps, he said, had not led to greater safety for Christians in the Middle Belt. Representative Riley Moore, a Republican from West Virginia, pressed the point further, pointing to a sharp rise in violence against Christians in Plateau State.

"What is the (State) Department doing to make sure the Nigerian government brings the fight to the militias where Christians are dying? And before you answer that, we cannot take this CPC designation off this country. They have not done enough," Moore said.

Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act: What Happens Next

The hearing was not only about looking back. Smith said the committee had worked with the House Committee on Appropriations, following a request from the White House, to prepare recommendations on measures needed to maximise the impact of the CPC designation. Those recommendations became the Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026, introduced as House Resolution 7457.

The bill is intended to strengthen accountability and add further measures against religious freedom violations in Nigeria. Smith said American lawmakers had repeatedly called for stronger diplomatic pressure, targeted sanctions against perpetrators, direct humanitarian help for displaced communities, and conditions on US assistance tied to measurable improvements. Our earlier report announced the hearing before it took place, as reported in US House to Hold Hearing on Nigeria Christian Persecution Tomorrow.

The violence the hearing described is still happening on the ground. In Plateau State, gunmen killed five Christians and wounded two others in attacks on two villages on Sunday, 8 November, as reported in Latest: 5 Christians Killed in Nigeria Plateau Attacks as Gunmen Strike Two Villages. In Benue, a Catholic priest was left unconscious after an attack, as reported in Latest: Catholic Priest Peter Kwen Left Unconscious in Benue Attack. And in Kenya, Al-Shabab gunmen killed five Christian road workers in Mandera, as reported in Al-Shabab Kills 5 Christian Road Workers in Mandera Kenya Ambush.

Smith closed the hearing with a warning that the moment must not be wasted. "One year ago, we sounded the alarm. Today, we must ensure that alarm is answered with action," he said. Whether that action comes — through sanctions, conditions on aid, or pressure on Abuja — will be decided in the weeks ahead, and the families still living in displacement camps will be watching.