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| Foto: Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0) |
Congressional leaders convened an urgent roundtable in Washington, D.C. this week to address the killing of Christians in Nigeria, developing concrete recommendations for President Donald Trump as new studies show a Christian is killed in the country about every 86 minutes.
Representative Riley Moore declared that "America CANNOT allow slaughter of Christians to continue" as Congress prepares its report to the president. Representatives Chris Smith, Mario Díaz-Balart, Brian Mast and Robert Aderholt took part alongside experts from the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the Council on Foreign Relations.
One killing every 86 minutes
The numbers behind the urgency are staggering. A new study from Equipping the Persecuted, a U.S.-based persecution watchdog, found that a Christian was killed in Nigeria about every 86 minutes between January 1 and September 8 of this year — 4,216 Christians killed across 251 days, or 16.8 deaths a day.
The study, titled "Crisis in the Middle Belt: Religious Persecution and Security Failure in Nigeria," focuses on the Middle Belt, the band of farming country across central Nigeria that includes Plateau and Benue states, where Christian villages sit beside lands that herders cross and claim. The authors conclude that most of the documented violence against Christian farming communities appears to be religiously motivated and carried out through organized militant networks — and that Fulani militant actors caused more of these deaths than Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province, combined.
A separate report by the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law (Intersociety), dated October 13, 2026, counted at least 7,500 Christians killed and about 1,000 churches attacked, destroyed or burnt across several African countries between January 1 and October 10, 2026 — with Nigeria accounting for the highest number: between 3,426 and 4,300 Christians killed, 3,395 abducted, and about 410 of the churches attacked or destroyed in the country.
According to Open Doors' World Watch List 2026, 3,490 of the 4,849 Christians killed for their faith worldwide were in Nigeria. More than 7,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria in 2025 alone, with 50,000 to 100,000 deaths since 2009, and approximately 500,000 newly displaced Christians in the central regions between May 2023 and May 2025.
The bill that would sanction the killers
Moore and Smith are the authors of the Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026, introduced in February. The bill would require the U.S. Secretary of State to submit annual reports to Congress on efforts to combat religious persecution in Nigeria, authorize sanctions on identified individuals responsible for the violence, and require a review of whether certain Fulani ethnic militias meet the criteria for designation as a Foreign Terrorist Organisation.
"The free world cannot stand by as Christians face mass murders, kidnappings and brutal assaults at the hands of terrorist thugs and armed militias in Nigeria," said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast. "This bill aligns with President Trump's steps to hold them accountable."
In April 2026, the House Appropriations Committee passed provisions imposing stricter oversight on financial assistance to Nigeria: 50 percent of funds earmarked for the country under foreign assistance titles will be withheld until it is certified that the government is taking "effective steps" to curb religious violence.
The pressure is already working — and the pushback
The pressure from Washington has already produced results on the ground. After a year of U.S. pressure, Nigerian forces surged into Barkin Ladi in Plateau State on the evening of September 20, used air support for the first time in the Middle Belt, imposed a curfew, and beat back a nearly 1,000-strong Fulani militant buildup — likely saving hundreds of Christian lives, according to reports from local journalists. Washington commended the response.
Last October, Trump designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, citing the thousands of Christians killed in the country in a year. On Christmas Day, U.S. forces struck Islamic State targets in Sokoto State at the request of the Nigerian authorities.
The Nigerian government has long rejected the idea that Christians are being targeted for their faith, describing the violence as a wider security crisis. Analysts note that Christians are among those affected, but that the majority of victims of armed groups are Muslims in the Muslim north, where most of the attacks take place. A filing with the U.S. Justice Department argues that the push by Moore and other lawmakers to freeze aid undermines Trump's counterterrorism partnership with Nigerian President Bola Tinubu at the moment it is producing results against ISIS.
Faith groups are also warning about a proposed Nigerian Foreign Aid bill that they say could restrict foreign-funded organizations and cut off the information reaching Washington about the killings. The Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria has called for the legislation to be suspended, warning it could give "government officials excessive discretion over churches, mosques, schools, and humanitarian organisations receiving foreign assistance."
For now, the roundtable's recommendations are headed to the White House — and Congress is making clear that the killing, one every 86 minutes, cannot continue unseen.
Fuentes: Republican Press, U.S. House of Representatives (chrissmith.house.gov), Daily Caller, Lone Trumpet, Sundiata Post, Document News, American Political Report, The Free Library.