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US Sen. ted cruz Trying to unite fellow evangelicals Christians and request Congress To name Nigeria as a violator of religious freedom with unfounded claims of “Christian mass murder”, which the West African nation’s government has rejected as false.
Cruz, a Republican member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, wants Nigeria to be designated a country of special concern as a country with “serious violations” of religious freedom. The countries named include Pakistan, Afghanistan and China. The designation could result in US sanctions. The bill he introduced last month is awaiting Senate action and there is no certainty that it will be approved.
Cruz’s claims have been exaggerated without any evidence by some celebrities and commentators in the US, with some even alleging “Christian genocide”. Cruz’s office did not respond to questions, including his motivation for the allegations.
Here’s what to know.
both Christian and Muslims are killed
Nigeria’s 220 million strong population is almost equally divided between Christians and Muslims. The country has long faced insecurity from various fronts, including the Boko Haram extremist group, which seeks to establish its own radical interpretation of Islamic law and has also targeted Muslims it does not deem Muslim enough.
Attacks in Nigeria have different motives. Religiously motivated people are targeting both Christians and Muslims, there are clashes between farmers and herders over dwindling resources, communal rivalries, separatist groups and ethnic clashes.
While Christians have also been among those targeted, analysts say the majority of the armed groups’ victims are Muslims in Nigeria’s Muslim-majority north, where most attacks occur.
Both Muslim and Christian communities and groups have at times alleged “genocide” during religiously motivated attacks against both sides. Such attacks occur frequently in the north-central and north-western regions, which include, among other forms of violence, farmer-herder conflict between farming communities – predominantly Christian – and Fulani herders, who are predominantly Muslim.
Joseph Hayab, former president of the Christian Union of Nigeria in Kaduna state, one of those most affected by insecurity, has disputed claims of “Christian genocide”.
While thousands of Christians have been killed in the past few years, “things are better than before,” Hayab said, however, warning that every single death is deplorable.
The Nigerian government rejected Cruz’s claims, which are controversial among Nigerians. “There has been no systematic, deliberate effort by the Nigerian government or any serious group to target any particular religion,” Information Minister Idris Muhammad told The Associated Press.
Nigeria was placed on the US list of countries of particular concern for the first time in 2020 for what the State Department called “systematic violations of religious freedom”. The designation did not highlight attacks on Christians. Observers removed the designation in 2023 as a way to improve relations between the countries ahead of a visit by then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
Responding to the latest claims by US commentators, the Christian Association of Nigeria said it has worked for years to draw attention to the “persecution of Christians in Nigeria”.
In its 2024 report, the US Commission on International Religious Freedom highlighted attacks targeting both Christians and Muslims in Nigeria, which it called systematic religious freedom violations. “A large number of Christians and Muslims are affected by the violence in several states of Nigeria,” the commission said.
what does the data say
Data collected by the US-based Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Program shows that 11,862 attacks against civilians in Nigeria between January 2020 and this September resulted in 20,409 deaths.
ACLED says that 385 of those attacks were “targeted incidents against Christians… where the Christian identity of the victim was a perceived factor”, resulting in 317 deaths.
During the same period, 417 deaths of Muslims were recorded in 196 attacks.
While religion has been a factor in Nigeria’s security crisis, due to its “large population and vast geographic differences it is impossible to say that religious violence drives all violence,” said Lad Serwat, senior Africa analyst at ACLED.
Analysts reject genocide claims
Analysts say Nigeria’s complex security dynamics do not meet the legal definition of genocide. The UN Convention on the Prevention of Genocide states that it is “committed with intent to destroy a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, in whole or in part.”
“If anything, what we’re seeing are mass killings that are not targeted against any specific group,” said Olajumoke Ayandele, an assistant professor at New York University’s Center for Global Affairs who specializes in conflict studies. “Bumping the drum of genocide could make the situation worse because everyone will be on alert.”
Chidi Odinkalu, a professor at Tufts University’s Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and former chairman of Nigeria’s National Human Rights Commission, said Nigerian authorities, however, need to pay attention to the violence on a larger scale.