US moves to put Nigeria back on list of religiously violating countries

There are indications that Nigeria could again be included in the United States government’s list of countries that violate religious freedom.

The US government had removed Nigeria from the list of countries violating freedom of religion in 2021, against the recommendation of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom.

But according to a report from Fox News on Wednesday, a U.S. representative for New Jersey’s fourth congressional district, Chris Smith, introduced a bipartisan resolution to add Nigeria to the State Department’s annual list of countries denying freedom of movement. violate religion on Tuesday.

Also, the report quoted Global Christian Relief President and CEO David Curry speaking at the International Religious Freedom Summit on Tuesday in Washington, D.C., calling for Nigeria to be listed as a country of particular concern.

Curry argued that the alleged abortion program was carried out on victims by the Nigerian military without their consent and religious consideration.

“Since 2013, the Nigerian military has been carrying out a secret mass abortion program in the war against Boko Haram. A recent Reuters study found that at least 10,000 pregnancies in women and girls ended after many were kidnapped and raped.

“The military forced at least 10,000 women to have abortions without their consent or taking into account their religious beliefs after they were abducted and raped by Boko Haram terrorists. But instead of being intimidated into silence, 33 of these women spoke openly to journalists about these unspeakable, grotesque violations of their bodily autonomy and created international awareness of the situation,” he said.

The report added that a former congressman, Frank Wolf, expressed regret that no action had been taken to help Christians in Nigeria.
He stated that the “Bring Back Our Girls” movement was an attempt to find the predominantly Christian female students aged 16 to 18 who were abducted by Boko Haram in 2014.

“Anyone remember the BringBackOurGirls hashtag? Well, whatever happened, we’re all those guys who went on television and (posted) the hashtag… 50% of the girls didn’t come back. I met some Chibok parents. They wonder what the hell the world is doing,” he said.

Fox News also quoted a State Department spokesman as saying: “The Secretary determined that Nigeria’s religious freedom status did not meet the legal threshold to allow Nigeria’s designation as a country of particular concern or their inclusion on the Special Watch List warrant. We continue to have concerns about freedom of religion in Nigeria, which are well documented in the annual IRF report, and we will continue to press the government to address them.

“The State Department has redesignated Boko Haram and ISIS-WA as entities of special concern for religious freedom. It has also designated these entities as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists.”

Calls to the phone number of Foreign Ministry spokesman Francisca Omayuli went unanswered. She has yet to respond to a message sent to her regarding this at the time this report was completed.