Christians Being Persecuted Around the World. U.S. Must Act

Christians in Nigeria and Syria were hit with exceptionally brutal jihadi attacks on two consecutive weekends this month. While the circumstances differed, both have important implications for American interests. President Trump’s foreign policy team should be paying closer attention.

In Nigeria’s Middle Belt state of Benue, which has a large Christian population, an estimated 200 displaced Christians were sleeping in the marketplace when they were attacked and then murdered “with extreme cruelty,” as Pope Leo XIV put it, around midnight on June 13. More than 200 Fulani Muslim herders swarmed into Yelewata on motorcycles and on foot, firing AK-47s indiscriminately and shouting “Allahu Akhbar,” diocesan priests in Makurdi (the capital of Benue) told Aid to the Church in Need. Two weeks before, 68 Christians were murdered in Fulani raids elsewhere in Benue, including the hometown of Catholic Bishop Wilfred Anagbe, who had recently testified before the U.S. Congress about earlier Fulani atrocities in Makurdi diocese. Similar Fulani attacks are frequently reported in the Nigerian states of Kaduna and Plateau, too. This continues a sickening pattern of mass murder that results in more Christians killed for their faith each year in Nigeria than anywhere else.

About the Author

Nina Shea

Nina Shea is director of Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom and author of the new report “Ten Persecuted Catholic Bishops in China”

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Christians in Nigeria and Syria were hit with exceptionally brutal jihadi attacks on two consecutive weekends this month. While the circumstances differed, both have important implications for American interests. President Trump’s foreign policy team should be paying closer attention.

In Nigeria’s Middle Belt state of Benue, which has a large Christian population, an estimated 200 displaced Christians were sleeping in the marketplace when they were attacked and then murdered “with extreme cruelty,” as Pope Leo XIV put it, around midnight on June 13. More than 200 Fulani Muslim herders swarmed into Yelewata on motorcycles and on foot, firing AK-47s indiscriminately and shouting “Allahu Akhbar,” diocesan priests in Makurdi (the capital of Benue) told Aid to the Church in Need. Two weeks before, 68 Christians were murdered in Fulani raids elsewhere in Benue, including the hometown of Catholic Bishop Wilfred Anagbe, who had recently testified before the U.S. Congress about earlier Fulani atrocities in Makurdi diocese. Similar Fulani attacks are frequently reported in the Nigerian states of Kaduna and Plateau, too. This continues a sickening pattern of mass murder that results in more Christians killed for their faith each year in Nigeria than anywhere else.