The United States has told Nigeria it must do more to protect Christians as senior officials from both countries meet in Abuja for high level security talks. The comments follow the reported mass kidnapping of worshippers from several churches in Kaduna State, an incident that has triggered local and international concern.
Allison Hooker, US under secretary of state for political affairs and head of the American delegation, said Nigeria’s government must guarantee that Christians can practise their faith freely and safely. She directly referenced the alleged abduction of more than 170 people from churches in Kajuru Local Government Area.
Hooker’s remarks reflect the priority US President Donald Trump has placed on what he calls “genocide” and “persecution” of Christians in Nigeria. Washington’s framing has been rejected by the Nigerian government and many analysts, who note that both Muslims and Christians are victims of overlapping security crises.
At the talks, Hooker said the US is in Abuja to discuss how both countries can work together to deter violence against Christian communities. She listed other priorities as countering terrorism and insecurity, investigating attacks, bringing perpetrators to justice and reducing killings, displacement and abductions of Christians in north central states.
Her prepared remarks did not mention Muslim victims of attacks by bandits, jihadists or other armed groups. Rights groups and researchers have repeatedly stressed that violence in Nigeria’s north and Middle Belt affects people of different faiths and is often driven by criminality, poverty and competition over land, rather than religion alone.
Nigeria continues to face multiple security threats, including bandit gangs that raid villages and kidnap for ransom in the northwest and central regions, and a long running Islamist insurgency in the northeast. Clashes between mostly Christian farmers and mostly Muslim Fulani herders have also killed thousands, though experts say these conflicts are largely resource based.
Hooker also cited past incidents such as the mass abduction of students from St Mary’s Catholic School in Niger State, though she inaccurately implied that all the kidnapped students there were Christians. Local Christian leaders in Niger State have confirmed that the school had both Christian and Muslim pupils among the abductees.
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