The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has called on President Donald Trump’s administration to appoint a Special Envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin to tackle religious freedom violations.
In its latest annual report released in March 2025, USCIRF recommended that the Trump administration “appoint a Special Envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin to maximise U.S. diplomatic efforts to address religious freedom violations and atrocity risk in that region.”
SaharaReporters earlier reported that the USCIRF also accused the Nigerian government, led by President Bola Tinubu, and state governments of tolerating or failing to effectively respond to violent attacks carried out by nonstate actors who justify their actions on religious grounds.
It stated that various militant groups, including Islamist extremists and Fulani militants, have targeted religious communities across Nigeria with devastating consequences.
USCIRF also urged the U.S. State Department under the Trump administration to designate Nigeria, along with Afghanistan, India, and Vietnam, as additional CPCs.
The report also recommended that 12 countries be redesignated as CPCs, including Burma, China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan.
Additionally, USCIRF suggested that the State Department maintain Algeria and Azerbaijan on the Special Watch List (SWL) and add 10 more countries, including Egypt, Indonesia, Iraq, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Syria, Turkey, and Uzbekistan.
The commission also called for the redesignation of Boko Haram and Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) — also known as ISIS-West Africa — as Entities of Particular Concern (EPCs), alongside six other groups: al-Shabaab, Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the Houthis, Islamic State – Sahel Province (ISSP), and Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM).
It said, “The Nigerian federal government also continued to enforce blasphemy laws that include a penalty of up to two years’ imprisonment for acts “persons consider as a public insult on their religion.”
“Several state governments also enforced their own more stringent blasphemy laws to prosecute and imprison individuals perceived to have insulted religion, including Christians, Muslims, and humanists. At least five prisoners remained in state custody on blasphemy charges at the end of the year, including Mubarak Bala, Yahaya Sharif–Aminu, Isma’ila Sani Isah, Sheikh Abduljabar Nasiru Kabara, and Abdulazeez Inyass.
“Authorities charged Bala, a humanist, for “insulting the Prophet Muhammad” in 2021 and sentenced him to 24 years in prison in 2022.
“However, in May, judicial authorities reduced the sentence to five years. In 2020, a court convicted Sharif-Aminu, a Sufi Muslim, for “insulting the religious creed” and sentenced him to death, but a high court ordered a retrial in 2021, and he remains in prison after filing an appeal. Kabara and Inyass remain imprisoned under death sentences that courts imposed in 2022 and 2016, respectively.
“Nigeria’s indigenous religious communities—in Muslim-majority and Christian-majority areas alike—came under elevated harassment from state governments that sought to restrict public displays of indigenous practices and rituals. In July, the Anambra State government demolished an indigenous shrine after the governor and Catholic bishops called on the state “to eliminate and banish neo-paganism and the works of darkness and evil.”
The report states, “In 2024, the conditions for religious freedom in Nigeria remained poor.
“Federal and state governments continued to tolerate attacks or fail to respond to violent actions by nonstate actors who justify their violence on religious grounds. These actors include Jama’tu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS, also known as Boko Haram) and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).”
“Bandit groups also participated in attacks against religious communities as well,” the report noted. “Violent Islamist groups and some Fulani militants sought to impose a singular interpretation of Islam on individuals and communities in their areas of operation, regardless of these individuals’ or communities’ own religion or belief.”
The report highlighted several specific incidents of religiously motivated violence in 2024. In January, suspected members of the Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS) insurgent group killed 14 people in Yobe State, including a local pastor from the Church of Christ in Nigeria. In May, al-Qaeda-affiliated Ansaru gunmen reportedly kidnapped 160 mainly Christian children and killed eight people in Niger State before later releasing the children.
Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) assailants also reportedly executed three Christians and shared images of the executions online.
In November, the Lakurawa group — seeking to impose their interpretation of Shari’a law — allegedly killed 15 people in Kebbi State. In May, bandits killed at least 49 people in Zamfara State, including a Muslim imam, and in Niger State, suspected bandits killed 10 farmers, including Christians. In August, bandits reportedly killed 70 Christians and kidnapped 20 students in separate attacks in Benue State.
USCIRF criticised the Nigerian government’s response to the violence, stating that security forces “sometimes remained slow to respond to violence by these groups, resulting in injury or death for members of targeted religious minority communities.”
The report estimated that around 30,000 Fulani bandits operate in several groups in northwest Nigeria, each consisting of anywhere from 10 to 1,000 members. These bandits have been accused of disproportionately targeting Christian communities and disrupting food production through violent raids and extralegal “taxation” campaigns that primarily victimise Christian farmers.
SaharaReporters
