- Lawmakers debate Trump’s “State of Concern” designation policy.
- Designation targets countries for severe violations of religious freedom.
- Nigeria recently named “Country of Particular Concern” under Trump.
Nigerian officials have vehemently denied the US president's insistence that Christian groups in the most populous country in Africa are subject to rampant persecution.
Nigeria is
"ground zero, the focal point of the most brutal and murderous anti-Christian persecution in the world today,"
according to veteran Republican Chris Smith, who chairs the Africa subcommittee, during Thursday's hearing.
He claimed that fortified groups act" with immunity" against Christians and accused Nigerian authorities of failing in their indigenous duty to guard residents.
The congresswoman called on the State Department to" seriously consider supporting mortal- rights vetted Nigerian forces to defend and cover Nigerian Christians and moderate Muslims," echoing Trump's trouble of implicit military intervention.
Senator Sara Jacobs, a Democrat, claimed that Trump's pitfalls were careless and could peril collaboration with a pivotal African supporter.
Experts informed the committee that long-standing governance shortcomings, complicated grievances, and agitation rather than merely religious conflict are the root causes of instability in Nigeria.
“A narrow narrative that frames Nigeria’s security situation solely as the persecution of Christians oversimplifies the issue,”
said Oge Onubogu, director of the Africa programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
“Religious and ethnic violence is driven more by governance failures and worsened by hate speech and conspiracy theories.”
Researchers and Nigerian officials note that criminality and competition for resources and land, particularly in the Middle Belt and North West area, are major causes of the instability plaguing sections of the country.
Both Muslims and Christians have been known to be victims of jihadist organizations like Boko Haram.
What legal consequences follow a Country of Particular Concern designation?
A Country of Particular Concern (CPC) designation by the U.S. government triggers a range of legal and political consequences under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). The designation signals that a country is responsible for" particularly severe violations" of religious freedom, similar as torture, dragged detention without charges, discoveries, or other obvious abuses.
The U.S. chairman is needed within 90 days to put at least one" presidential action" from a prescribed list, calibrated to the inflexibility of the violations.
Presidential conduct ranges from" lighter" political measures similar as cancelling sanctioned visits or limiting cooperation, to" heavier" profitable measures including withholding development aid, assessing trade warrants, indurating means, or confining U.S. government procurement from the offending country.