For nearly twenty years, the violence has gone largely unanswered. Churches burned. Families massacred. Entire Christian communities driven from ancestral villages by jihadist networks that operate with a confidence born of impunity. The Nigerian government, by and large, looked the other way. The international community, for the most part, said little. But on February 23, 2026, something changed. The United States Congress walked into the White House carrying a report — and a demand.

The House Appropriations Committee and the House Foreign Affairs Committee delivered a joint report on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria to the White House, the culmination of one of the most comprehensive congressional investigations into religious violence in recent memory. It included expert testimony, formal hearings, roundtable discussions, and two separate bipartisan congressional delegations that traveled to Nigeria to see the crisis with their own eyes.

The report lands at a moment of genuine political momentum. President Trump, since returning to the White House, has redesignated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern — a formal designation under U.S. law that opens the door to a range of diplomatic and economic pressures. That action gave investigators a mandate and, for the first time in a generation, gave persecuted Christians in Nigeria reason to believe that Washington was actually paying attention.

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What Investigators Found on the Ground

The members of Congress who traveled to Nigeria did not arrive for photo opportunities. They met with survivors of attacks, spoke with internally displaced people living in makeshift camps, sat with religious leaders who had watched their flocks scattered by terror, and engaged directly with Nigerian government officials at the highest levels.

What they saw shook them. Rep. Juan Ciscomani of Arizona, who traveled to Nigeria in December 2025 as part of a bipartisan delegation, described families living in constant fear, with extremist networks exploiting governmental instability to operate almost freely. Rep. Riley Moore of West Virginia, who led the congressional investigation, put it more starkly — he said he witnessed the aftermath of horrific atrocities with his own eyes, atrocities that he said Christians have been enduring in silence for far too long.

The report’s findings are unsparing. Jihadist networks — operating with coordination and sustained intent — have been carrying out violence against Christian civilians while weak enforcement mechanisms and a culture of non-prosecution have allowed perpetrators to act without meaningful consequence. The investigators concluded that this pattern of impunity has not stabilized the situation. It has made it worse. Every unanswered attack is an invitation for the next one.

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A Roadmap for Action

The report does not stop at documenting suffering. It is, above all, an action document — a detailed set of recommendations designed to be implemented through the existing tools of American foreign policy. The investigators drew a clear line: the United States has leverage, and it has not been using it adequately. That must change.

Among the steps recommended, the report calls for a bilateral agreement between Washington and Abuja to protect Christian communities and eliminate jihadist activity, alongside economic cooperation incentives that give Nigeria a reason to act rather than simply absorb American pressure. It calls for the implementation of the FY26 National Security appropriations legislation, which contains a provision withholding American funding to the Nigerian government until measurable action is taken to stop violence against Christians.

The report also calls for public naming and shaming of perpetrators through the formal CPC presidential directives, targeted sanctions on individuals and organizations involved in or tolerant of violence, continued visa restrictions for perpetrators, and a demand that sharia criminal codes and anti-blasphemy laws — which have been used as legal cover for persecution — be repealed.

Perhaps most strikingly, the report recommends reviewing points of leverage over Fulani herdsmen, whose militias have been responsible for some of the worst attacks on Christian farming communities, including the possibility of blocking the export of beef and cattle-related products from Nigeria as economic pressure.

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Voices from Capitol Hill

The congressional leaders behind the report spoke with unusual clarity and conviction when presenting their findings. Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart of Florida, Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on National Security, called religious freedom a core U.S. priority and said that no one should face persecution or death for practicing their faith. He pointed to the FY26 appropriations legislation as a concrete tool that links American financial support to Nigerian action.

Rep. Chris Smith of New Jersey, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, was the most direct of all. He said that for nearly twenty years, the Nigerian government has been complicit in and complacent about religious violence — that by failing to prosecute jihadist extremists who rape, torture, and murder Christians, Abuja has emboldened them to inflict more suffering. He called Trump’s redesignation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern “bold and well-founded” and said the joint report is a tool to help the Nigerian government help its own people.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast of Florida put it simply: The United States will not turn a blind eye to Christian persecution.

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A Once-in-a-Generation Opportunity

The investigators are careful not to frame this as a moment of American charity toward Nigeria. It is, they argue, a matter of mutual interest. Jihadist instability in Nigeria is a U.S. national security concern. The networks fueling violence against Christians are connected to broader extremist ecosystems that threaten regional stability and American interests across West Africa. Protecting religious freedom and countering terrorism, in this context, are the same mission pursued through the same strategy.

What makes this moment different from the many years that preceded it is a combination of political will at the top — President Trump’s personal engagement and the formal CPC designation — and a Congress that has done the investigative work to back up that will with evidence, recommendations, and legislation. The report calls it a once-in-a-generation opportunity for real change.

Whether the Nigerian government seizes that opportunity remains to be seen. Rep. Moore addressed Abuja directly in his statement after the White House meeting, urging Nigerian leaders to take the chance to deepen and strengthen their relationship with the United States — and noting plainly that doing so is in the interest of both nations. The alternative, the report makes clear, is increasing isolation and accountability measures that will not be pleasant for either side.

For the Christians of Nigeria who have been waiting — some of them living in displacement camps, some of them still returning to the ashes of burned homes and churches — this report is the loudest signal they have received in two decades that the world has not forgotten them. Whether it translates into change on the ground is the question that now falls to governments to answer.