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The United States President Donald Trump on Friday reacted to the claims of Christian Genocide in Nigeria, ordering probe into the issue while announcing designation of Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern’. Trump’s comment, which is in contrary to the earlier position by his Senior Adviser on Arab and African Affairs, Massad Boulos, who stated that the terror groups killed more Muslims than Christians in Nigeria, has continued to generate national and international reactions. Earlier, Tribune Online reports that US comedian and HBO host Bill Maher accused Islamist groups of carrying out a genocide against Christians in the country. “I’m not a Christian, but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They’ve killed over a hundred thousand since 2009. They’ve burnt 18,000 churches. These are the Islamists, Boko Haram. This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza. “They are literally attempting to wipe out the Christian population of an entire country,” Maher said. Similarly, US Senator Ted Cruz claimed that Nigerian government officials were “ignoring and even facilitating the mass murder of Christians by Islamist jihadists.” However, the Nigeria’s federal government has denied these claims, saying “couching the situation as a deliberate, systematic attack on Christians is inaccurate and harmful.” But the US President, in a post on his Truth Social on Friday, claimed “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria”, calling “mass slaughter” of Christians by radical Islamist and stating that the United States would not stand by while Christians in Nigeria and other parts of the world face persecution. Trump then went on to designate Nigeria as a ‘country of particular concern’. However, this is not the first time the Donald Trump-led US administration will designate Nigeria as such. Nigeria on CPC list in 2020 The U.S. State Department, under President Donald Trump in December 2020, placed Nigeria alongside countries like China, Iran, and North Korea, on Country of Particular Concern (CPC) list, marking the first time Nigeriahad been placed on the highly scrutinized list. The decision came after years of advocacy by groups like the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which had consistently recommended the designation since 2009. According to reports, the primary concerns then included the widespread and violent activities of terrorist groups like Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP), as well as attacks by armed Fulani-affiliated elements. Also, the US government also pointed to government-tolerated violations, such as the continued use of blasphemy laws in northern states, which resulted in harsh convictions inconsistent with international human rights standards. However, this designation, made in the final weeks of the Trump administration, proved to be temporary. The incoming administration, under President Joe Biden, removed Nigeria from the CPC list in November 2021, a move that sparked considerable controversy and criticism from USCIRF and religious freedom advocates. Country of Particular Concern: What does it mean? The term ‘Country of Particular Concern’ (CPC) is a designation applied by the U.S. Secretary of State under the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA) of 1998. Using this designation, the U.S. government is required to take actions to address the religious freedom violations and these actions, Tribune Online learnt, can include a range of policy responses, such as imposing sanctions, which may involve the withdrawal or limitation of U.S. development assistance; targeting specific officials with sanctions (like travel bans or asset freezes) under laws like the Global Magnitsky Act; and using diplomatic tools to pressure the government to cease the violations. ALSO READ TOP STORIES FROM NIGERIAN TRIBUNE
