Nigerian leaders have rejected U.S. claims of widespread Christian persecution, but Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., is highlighting stark evidence of rampant anti-Christian violence — supporting President Donald Trump’s designation of Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC).
Trump announced Nov. 1 that he had instructed the Department of War “to prepare for possible action” if Nigeria’s government fails to stop the deadly persecution of Christians by radical Islamists, as CatholicVote reported. A day earlier, he had declared Nigeria a CPC. But some Nigerian leaders, including Bola Ahmed Tinubu, president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, dismissed Trump’s characterization, insisting the country upholds religious liberty.
Moore, a Catholic, has repeatedly challenged claims of religious tolerance in Nigeria, citing evidence of mass anti-Christian killings. Since 2009, between 50,000 and 100,000 Christians have been slaughtered in the African nation, Moore said in a Nov. 1 “Fox & Friends” interview with Rachel Campos-Duffy.
“This is a genocide that’s been going on by Islamic terrorist organizations,” he said.
“Fox & Friends” cited data from the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law indicating that since 2009, about 18,000 churches have been burned and 5 million Christians have been displaced. Seven thousand Christians were killed in 2025 alone, the group reported.
In October, Moore sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio urging the administration to designate Nigeria as a CPC under the International Religious Freedom Act, citing the same data he referenced on “Fox & Friends.”
Still, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP) presidential candidate in 2023, condemned Trump’s comments as “heightened pronouncements on Nigeria.”
“[O]ur country is a sovereign nation whose people face different threats from outlaws across the country,” Kwankwaso said on X. “The insecurity we face does not distinguish based on religious, ethnic, or political beliefs. The United States should assist the Nigerian authorities with better cutting-edge technology to tackle these problems, rather than posing a threat that could further polarise our country.”
Moore fired back the next day on X, accusing Kwankwaso of complicity in the anti-Christian violence for having implemented Sharia law during his tenure as governor of Kano State. He cited a 2000 BBC News report showing that the Islamic legal code — that “makes so-called blasphemy punishable by death” — took effect under Kwankwaso’s leadership.
CatholicVote has extensively covered reports of the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. Earlier this year, the country was again named the world’s deadliest for Christians, according to International Christian Concern. The religious freedom watchdog reported that priests, seminarians, and church workers remain among the most frequently targeted victims.
An August 2024 report from the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa found that attacks on Christians far outnumbered those on any other religious group, CatholicVote reported.
Between 2019 and 2023, 55,910 people — 30,880 civilians and 25,030 members of Security Forces or Terror Groups — were killed, according to the report. The group also recorded 21,621 abductions during that period.
Of the 30,880 civilians killed, more than half — 16,769 — were Christians. Another 6,235 were Muslims, 154 were members of traditional African religions, and 7,722 victims did not have recorded faith information.
The religious affiliation of abducted civilians was of similar makeup. More than half (11,185) were again Christian, 7,899 were Muslims, 184 followed traditional African religions, and 2,264 were of unknown religious affiliation.
Church leaders in Nigeria have warned of the crisis’ severity.
“Our citizens are being daily kidnapped, extorted, dehumanised, killed or forced to flee their ancestral homes, abandoning their sources of livelihood to seek refuge in makeshift camps, exposed to extreme weather conditions, often without food and water,” Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji, the president of the Nigeria Bishops Conference, said in September.
Moore said Trump’s renewed designation of Nigeria as a country of concern could help save Christians there, recalling that during Trump’s first term, killings in Nigeria slowed after Trump made the same declaration.
He added in a recent interview hosted by Mario Nawfal that the Biden administration later removed Nigeria from the list, claiming the violence wasn’t specifically anti-Christian.
REP. MOORE: “BIDEN REMOVED NIGERIA’S CHRISTIAN PROTECTION, THE KILLINGS SURGED AGAIN”
“I wrote Sec. Rubio a letter.
One of my requests in that letter is to designate Nigeria as ‘A country of particular concern.’
What does that do?
It pumps the brakes, and it does… https://t.co/En9knNsIHl pic.twitter.com/56R2nilPuN
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) November 2, 2025
“We know that obviously not true,” Moore said. “They are targeting Christians.”
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