US State Department officials say Nigeria has taken a more serious approach to addressing religious violence since its designation as a country of particular concern (CPC).
President Donald Trump redesignated Nigeria a CPC over
allegations of a Christian genocide before following up with a missile strike
in Sokoto on Christmas Day.
Nigeria and the US have since entered a military partnership
targeting terrorists in the country’s vast northern region and established a
joint working group aimed at addressing Washington’s concerns over religious
violence in the country.
On Thursday, Chris Smith, chairman of the US house foreign
affairs Africa sub-committee, led a congressional hearing on Nigeria’s response
to attacks on vulnerable communities since the CPC designation.
Delivering his assessment on the matter, Frank Garcia,
assistant secretary, bureau of African affairs at the state department, told
Congress the department has worked intensively with Nigerian officials to
confront the persecution of Christian communities and to hold perpetrators
accountable.
Garcia noted that while the violence had not stopped,
diplomatic engagements with the Nigerian government were ongoing.
“We are expecting results — protection for Christian
communities in the Middle Belt through increased Nigerian security and law
enforcement deployments, more timely and effective responses to early warnings
of impending attacks, accountability for perpetrators through stronger courts
and security services, and deeper military-to-military cooperation,” he said.
Garcia said the US was adopting a unified approach to
building Nigeria’s security through capacity building, expanded use of
biometric data to identify perpetrators, and financial action plans to disrupt
terrorist financing networks.
“Though Nigeria has reported progress, under Secretary
Hooker made it clear in the joint working group second session that this pace
is insufficient,” he said.
Riley Barnes, assistant secretary, bureau of democracy,
human rights, and labour at the state department, said US authorities had been
pressing the Nigerian government to repeal blasphemy laws, or at a minimum, to
move to non-enforcement.
He said Trump’s re-designation of Nigeria as a CPC has
resulted in the West African country taking “these issues more seriously”.
“The government has reported leadership changes,
strategically deployed military forces, and increased arrests and
prosecutions,” Barnes said.
“They’ve agreed to report more transparently on spending for
displaced people and to develop a plan and timeline for returning internally
displaced persons safely and securely to their ancestral lands.
“But our chief goal remains an end to attacks and violence.
The US has been clear that the measure of success will be simply fewer attacks
and less violence, and importantly, demonstrable progress in holding the
individuals who carry out attacks accountable. Abuja carries the burden of
proof, and there is still more work to be done.”
Oge Onubogu, director and senior fellow of the African
program, Center for Strategic and International Studies, said it was important
for attacks in Nigeria to be confronted “honestly and unequivocally”.
“The evidence does not support treating Christians as the
sole victims of Nigeria’s violence or reducing the complex insecurity of the
middle belt to a single explanation based on religion,” Onubogu said.
“Muslim communities have also suffered devastating attacks.
Religious identity can intersect with ethnicity, land, and resource disputes,
political competition, livelihoods, criminality, governance failures, and
longstanding local grievances.”
Onubogu said the CPC designation should serve as a policy
tool rather than a substitute for policy itself.
Smith opposed lifting the designation, saying it should
remain in place until the US sees concrete progress from Nigeria.
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