Witnesses will testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee at the U.S. Congress’s next hearing on claims of Christian genocide in Nigeria on Wednesday.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee Subcommittee on Africa and the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere will jointly call the hearing, which is themed “Defending Religious Freedom Around the World.”
Nigeria is headed for widespread Christian-Muslim violence, according to the witnesses, whose testimony were made public on the committee’s website prior to the hearing.
Former US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Sam Brownback, Pastor Ezra Jin’s daughter Grace Drexel, and former US Commission on International Religious Freedom chair Dr. Stephen F. Schneck are scheduled to testify during the session.
Brownback said that extremist organizations are targeting Nigeria as part of a larger religious campaign in his prepared statement that was made public before to the session.
The cleansing efforts of radical, militant Islam are still ongoing in the MENA region and abroad. In their pursuit of supremacy, they see Syria and Nigeria as crucial regions of opportunity, he claimed, barring all other religions, even those of Islam.
Brownback also cautioned that religious violence is on the rise throughout the continent of Africa.
He stated that “Nigeria is the deadliest place on the planet to be a Christian” and that “early warning signs of a Muslim-on-Christian war are brewing across Africa.”
Moreover, he asserted that “the Nigerian government is seeking and receiving support from China, Russia, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia at the same time.”
Schneck contended in his own submission that religious persecution is facilitated by instability and poor government.
He claimed that “failing or failed states are locations for the emergence or fostering of militarized groups—insurgent, ethnic, or religious—that can pose a threat to freedom of religion.”
“In such situations, religious communities are also targeted by banditry and organized crime,” he continued.
Schneck claims that Nigeria is one of the nations where these circumstances already exist.
Examples of current situations endangering freedom of religion or belief include Sudan, Syria, and Nigeria. High levels of social insecurity are being faced by both Syria and Nigeria, and the governments of both countries have failed to stop widespread violence against religious communities, he said.
Schneck also expressed concern about the lack of updated designations of countries of concern and the delays in the publication of the US Department of State’s reports on international religious freedom.
“Countries of Particular Concern, Special Watch List, and Entities of Particular Concern have yet to be designated by the State Department. He stated that President Biden’s 2023 appointments were scheduled to expire at the end of 2025.
Nigeria is now the only country on the designation list, he continued.
Nigeria appears to be the only nation in the world now classified as a Country of Particular Concern due to President Trump’s unique classification; neither Special Watch List nations nor Entities of Particular Concern have been named.
Later, on Christmas Day, the US government launched airstrikes against terrorist strongholds in Sokoto.
Nonetheless, the Federal Government has always denied allegations of systematic persecution of Christians, maintaining that Nigerians of all religions are impacted by insecurity.
Nigeria’s National Security Advisor, Nuhu Ribadu, met with US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth in the Pentagon on November 20, 2025, to discuss synchronized approaches to the security situation.
As part of continuing security talks between the two nations, Ribadu also revealed in December that a US congressional delegation traveled to Abuja.
The Office of the National Security Adviser reports that “counter-terrorism cooperation, regional stability,” and “strengthening the strategic security partnership between Nigeria and the United States” were the main topics of discussion during the engagement.
