Nigeria leaders deny Christian genocide, UN attributes violence to 'climate change'

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(The Center Square) – Nigerian leaders continue to deny that Christian genocide has been occurring for years as the United Nation has attributed the violence to “climate change.”

Over the weekend, President Donald Trump threatened to take military action after he announced that the U.S. would designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern. He did so after U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, called on him to act and also introduced legislation to protect Nigerian Christians. 

“If the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, ‘guns a-blazing,’ to completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities," Trump said while also directing the Department of War to prepare for possible action.

Last month, Cruz introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom Accountability Act of 2025 to protect Christians and other religious minorities from persecution by Islamic militants.  

The bill, if signed into law, directs the federal government to impose sanctions on the Nigeria government and its officials “who facilitate Islamist jihadist violence and the imposition of blasphemy laws” against non-Muslim Nigerians. 

“Nigerian Christians are being targeted and executed for their faith by Islamist terrorist groups and are being forced to submit to sharia law and blasphemy laws across Nigeria. It is long past time to impose real costs on the Nigerian officials who facilitate these activities,” Cruz said.

In response to Trump’s threat, Nigeria’s president Bola Ahmed Tinubu, said, “Nigeria stands firmly as a democracy governed by constitutional guarantees of religious liberty. Since 2023, our administration has maintained an open and active engagement with Christian and Muslim leaders alike and continues to address security challenges which affect citizens across faiths and regions. 

“Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so. Nigeria opposes religious persecution and does not encourage it. Nigeria is a country with constitutional guarantees to protect citizens of all faiths. Our administration is committed to working with the United States government and the international community to deepen understanding and cooperation on protection of communities of all faiths.”

The Nigerian government also claimed that more than 99% of its 300 million residents “identify with a religion,” making Nigeria “one of the most faithful nations on earth.” It also says more than 120 inter-faith peacebuilding organizations operate nationwide, saying, “Dialogue, not division, defines our democracy. Different faiths. One nation. One destiny.”

An advisor to Tinubu, Dr. Daniel Bwala, told the South African Broadcasting Corporation that claims of a Christian genocide are a hoax; the U.S. and Nigeria are partners and any U.S. military action on Nigerian soil would violate international law. 

“We acknowledge that there is case of killing in Nigeria. The difference is we object to the illusion that the killing is targeting a religion. The whole idea of a Christian genocide is a hoax,” he said.

As he spoke, SABC News posted images on a split screen of burned homes, churches and bodies. Cruz also published a video containing gruesome images of slaughtered Christians.  

Cruz, who chairs the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Africa and Global Health Policy, argues Christians are being killed because of a dozen state government Islamic blasphemy laws and Tinubu’s government turning a blind eye.  

Nigerian officials have said his claims were “malicious, contrived lies.” Its minister of information said, "The Nigerian government rejects that. This is certainly not true." 

For years, Nigerian bishops and Christians leaders have reported on Islamic genocide of Christians. Radio Biafra Media argues the United Nations has been complicit in genocide for has attributing Islamic militants raping Christian Nigerians and burning their homes, churches and schools to “climate change.”

Persecution of Christians escalated in 2009 after an Islamic terrorist group Boko Haram uprising. Since then, an estimated 189,000 civilians have been killed, 125,000 of whom were Christians, InterSociety, a Nigerian non-governmental organization, calculated.

By 2015, Boko Haram began self-identifying as ISWAP (Islamic State West Africa Province). ISWAP, Fulani fighters, soldiers with Operation Safe Haven, a joint military force, and other Islamic terrorist groups are targeting Christians for annihilation, according to multiple reports, The Center Square reported. In the first 220 days of this year, more than 7,000 Christians were killed in Nigeria, InterSociety reported. 

“The apparent failure of the [Nigerian] government to protect civilians has widespread effects with more than 10,000 schools being closed down in Northern Nigeria due to the current insecurity, consigning millions of children to illiteracy, early marriage and poverty,” Open Doors’ 2025 World Watch List report states. It claims more than 350 million Christians are being persecuted for their faith worldwide, with Nigeria ranking as the seventh worst country for Christians to live in.