The United States House of Representatives is calling for targeted sanctions against specific Nigerian organizations, marking a significant escalation in the American response to long-standing allegations of religious persecution in the African nation.
Lawmakers are urging the Departments of State and Treasury to impose sanctions on individuals and groups, including the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) and Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore . This push from Congress comes amid a wider reassessment of US relations with Nigeria under the Trump administration.
The legislative pressure is detailed in a House resolution that commends President Donald Trump for his recent decision to officially designate Nigeria as a "Country of Particular Concern" (CPC) for engaging in or tolerating "systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom" . This label is reserved for the world's most severe violators of religious rights.
The resolution specifically calls for sanctions under the Global Magnitsky framework, which would include visa bans and asset freezes, on entities responsible for severe violations . It also recommends placing Fulani-Ethnic Militias operating in Nigeria's Benue and Plateau States on the official "Entities of Particular Concern" list .
This congressional action is part of a broader legislative effort. A separate bill, the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025, has been introduced in the House. The bill seeks to legally require the State Department to designate Nigeria as a CPC and to impose sanctions on Nigerian officials who enforce Sharia law or tolerate religiously-motivated violence .
Supporters of the sanctions and the CPC designation point to alarming statistics. Lawmakers citing figures from their offices state that more than 7,000 Christians have been killed in Nigeria in 2025 alone, an average of 35 per day . Open Doors, a group that monitors Christian persecution, reports that Nigeria accounts for 89 percent of Christians martyred worldwide .
A key focus of the allegations involves violence in Nigeria's Middle Belt region. Testimony from a House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee hearing described militant groups of nomadic Fulani Muslim herders as "the greatest threat to Nigeria’s Christians" in that area . This violence, experts say, has led to thousands of deaths and has forced millions from their lands, creating a severe humanitarian crisis in the country's agricultural heartland .
The Miyetti Allah organizations, which represent the interests of Fulani herders, are at the center of this controversy. Some advocates and local leaders allege these groups are behind coordinated attacks aimed at seizing land and displacing Christian communities . The leader of Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, Bello Bodejo, was recently released from detention after a Nigerian High Court cleared him of wrongdoing .
The Nigerian government firmly rejects the characterization of the violence as a one-sided religious conflict. President Bola Tinubu's administration has pushed back against the US designation, stating that it does not reflect Nigeria's national reality . A presidential spokesman called the claims of Christian persecution misleading and stated that any unilateral US military operation in Nigeria would be unacceptable .
Analysts and international observers describe a more complex situation. They note that Nigeria's security crises involve multiple factors, including communal and ethnic tensions, as well as disputes over land and water resources between farmers and herders . Data on the violence often shows that both Christians and Muslims are victims, with the religious affiliation of casualties frequently determined by geography rather than belief . Extremist groups like Boko Haram and ISIS-West Africa have also killed tens of thousands of Muslims in the country's predominantly Muslim north .
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has repeatedly recommended the CPC designation for Nigeria in recent years, criticizing the prior Biden administration's decision to remove the label . The Trump administration had initially designated Nigeria as a CPC in December 2020, a move that was reversed in 2021 .
The potential consequences of the CPC designation extend beyond symbolism. US law requires that after a country is designated, Congress must be notified, and if non-economic policy options are exhausted, economic measures generally must be imposed . President Trump has also threatened to stop all US aid to Nigeria if its government fails to protect Christians . The US committed approximately $1.02 billion in aid to Nigeria for fiscal year 2023 .
As the situation develops, the call for sanctions highlights a deepening concern in Washington over religious violence in Nigeria and sets the stage for a potential shift in the diplomatic and economic relationship between the two nations.