US Congressman Riley Moore: Nigeria’s Christian Persecution Far Worse Than Reported.

A US congressional delegation led by Congressman Riley Moore has wrapped up a tense fact-finding mission in Nigeria, poised to deliver a stark briefing to President Donald Trump on escalating violence against Christians. The team, including five lawmakers, focused on Benue State, one of Nigeria’s most perilous regions, where they met internally displaced persons (IDPs), attack survivors, Christian leaders, bishops, and traditional rulers. Moore described the encounters as the most disturbing of his career, citing accounts of families obliterated by alleged Fulani militants and Islamic extremists chanting “Allahu Akbar” while torching churches and IDP camps. ​​

Traveling in armored vehicles amid acute security threats, the delegation challenged narratives framing the bloodshed as mere farmer-herder clashes or climate disputes. Moore highlighted a survivor’s testimony of losing five children slaughtered before her eyes while pregnant, alongside her delivery in an IDP camp, and another woman bereft of her husband, two daughters, and unborn child. “They are trying to erase Christians from their ancestral homeland,” he asserted, noting attacks spared no one, including worshippers and shelters, underscoring a deliberate religious targeting. ​​

The mission followed Trump’s October directive to the House Appropriations Committee, designating Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” for Christian persecution and demanding a full report by month’s end, co-authored with Chairman Tom Cole. Meetings extended to Nigeria’s National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu and Attorney General Lateef Fagbemi, signaling bilateral scrutiny amid ongoing 2025 atrocities like the June massacre of 200 IDPs in Yelewata and persistent Fulani raids in Plateau, Benue, and Southern Kaduna. Critics, including missionaries, deem the slaughter “worse than genocide,” with mass graves proliferating and clerics abducted en masse. ​

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Nigerian authorities maintain the crisis lacks religious undertones, attributing it to broader insecurity, yet global watchdogs and church leaders decry government inaction and “ethno-religiously radicalized” forces. Moore pledged US resolve, praising a nascent Nigeria-US task force and the rescue of 100 Catholic schoolchildren, while urging international intervention. As 2025 closes, Nigeria remains a flashpoint for Christian plight, with millions under threat. ​​