U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday that Christianity faces a threat in Nigeria and he was adding the West African nation to a State Department watch list.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social.
He said he was putting Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer and most populous country, on a “Countries of Particular Concern” list of nations the U.S. finds have engaged in religious freedom violations. The list includes China, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia and Pakistan among others, according to the State Department website.
Trump said he was asking U.S. Representatives Riley Moore and Tom Cole, as well as the House of Representatives Appropriations Committee, to look into the matter and report back to him.
US. lawmaker Reiley Moore had earlier doubled down on the campaign for President Donald Trump to designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern, citing reports of the killing of a pastor and the abduction of other church members in Kaduna.
Moore described the killing of Yahaya Kambasya, the pastor of the United Church of Christ in Nigeria (UCCN), popularly known as HEKAN, and the abduction of his church members as “horrific” in a post on X.
“Horrific news out of northern Nigeria. A pastor was shot and killed, and 20 Christians were abducted. This is the second attack on this same Christian community just this month,” Moore said.
He added, “Enough is enough. It’s time to designate Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern, @SecRubio.”
Amos Kiri, national president of HEKAN, in a statement on Thursday, confirmed the killing of the pastor and the abduction of church members in Farin Dutse, Kauru LGA of Kaduna State, on October 28, 2025.
“The attack resulted in the death of Rev. Yahaya Kambasya and the kidnapping of over 20 people; among them are HEKAN members,” Kiri said. “The bandits invaded the community and started shooting sporadically at locals and whisked away those captured.”
Moore, who represents West Virginia’s 2nd District in the U.S. House of Representatives, had, in a letter addressed to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in October, urged authorities to designate “Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC).”
The U.S. lawmaker cited “reports that corrupt cells of the Nigerian government may be complicit, and even directly involved, in some of these attacks.”
Ted Cruz, a Republican U.S senator from Texas had as part of the campaign against genocide against Christians, proposed a “Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act” that would target government officials facilitating the murder of Christians and the implementation of “blasphemy laws” with sanctions.
Meanwhile, government has repeatedly denied Christians’ genocide in Nigeria, however, the Christian Association of Nigeria affirmed Cruz’s position, urging the international community to intervene.
With Reuters report
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