US Congress to Review Nigeria Violence Record
The United States House of Representatives will hold a congressional hearing on Thursday, November 12, examining Nigeria’s efforts to protect Christians and address insecurity in the Middle Belt region. The session, titled “One Year Later: Assessing Nigeria’s Efforts to Protect Christians and Secure the Middle Belt,” will be chaired by Republican lawmaker Chris Smith, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa .
According to a statement from Smith’s office, the hearing will assess the current state of religious violence attributed to extremist groups including Boko Haram, the Nigerian government’s measures to curb persecution and punish perpetrators, and steps Washington can take to ensure Nigerian authorities prevent systemic violence against Christians and non-radical Muslim communities . It marks Smith’s fourteenth congressional hearing focused on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria .
Two witness panels are scheduled. The first will feature Frank Garcia, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Riley Barnes, Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour. The second panel will include Nina Shea of the Hudson Institute, Ryan Brown of Open Doors US, and Oge Onubogu of the Center for Strategic and International Studies . The hearing begins at 11 a.m. at the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, DC, and will be streamed live on YouTube .
The session comes almost exactly one year after President Donald Trump redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern in October 2025 over alleged severe violations of religious freedom, reversing a Biden administration decision to remove the country from the list in 2021 . Trump subsequently ordered a military strike on Islamic State targets in northwestern Nigeria on Christmas Day 2025, and the two countries have since entered a military partnership targeting terrorist groups in the country’s northern region .
The Nigerian government has consistently rejected characterizations of the violence as primarily religious persecution, describing insecurity as complex and multifactorial, involving banditry, farmer-herder conflicts and terrorism affecting communities of both faiths . The hearing also unfolds against a backdrop of continuing attacks. In Benue State, suspected herders killed at least three people and injured several others in Logo Local Government Area earlier this month . In Plateau State, suspected militias ambushed commuters along the Barkin Ladi axis, killing four including a soldier, while troops repelled a separate attack in Mangu Local Government Area . In Zamfara State, bandits burned a local vigilante and multiple family members to death in Gidan Taba village, with the death toll disputed between local officials and police .
