- Classifies it as a country of particular concern
United States President Donald Trump has redesignated Nigeria as a country of particular concern.
This follows the groundswell that accompanied the allegations of United States Senator Ted Cruz, who accused Nigeria’s government of enabling a “massacre” against Christians, citing a rising number of attacks against the community in the country.
In a statement on social Media on Friday, Trump said Christianity was facing an existential threat in Nigeria.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I am hereby making Nigeria a “COUNTRY OF PARTICULAR CONCERN” — But that is the least of it. When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done!”
“I am asking Congressman Riley Moore, together with Chairman Tom Cole and the House Appropriations Committee, to immediately look into this matter, and report back to me.
“The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other Countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our Great Christian population around the World!”
Weeks ago, American Fact-Finder, Mike Arnold, noted that the pattern of attacks is consistent.
He attributed the ongoing violence to three intertwined drivers: radical Islamist conquest, illicit ‘blood mineral’ mining, and politically motivated demographic re-engineering.
“The term farmer herder clashes is, in many instances today, cynical doublespeak. Weaponizing historical land disputes to mask jihadist conquest. For centuries, herders and farmers co-existed with rare, very rarely lethal disputes,” he said.
“Now villages are systematically razed, churches leveled, and tens of thousands are dead. This is a systematic terror and not grazing conflicts. A lie akin to calling Bosnia’s ethnic cleansing a neighborhood spat.”
Citing Article II of the 1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, Arnold asserted that Nigeria’s situation meets the international legal threshold for genocide.
According to him, after five years of investigation, he could say, “The campaign of violence and displacement in northern and middle belt Nigeria does indeed constitute a calculated current and long-running genocide against Christian communities and other religious minorities without any reasonable doubt. To continue to deny this is to be complicit with these atrocities.”
Arnold warned that continued denial of the atrocities only emboldens perpetrators.
“To continue to deny this is to be complicit with these atrocities,” he said. “I say this not in anger, but in truth and grief. My stated assignment from my host was to speak the truth and I have done that to the best of my ability. I believe Nigeria has a bright future.”
“I believe in Christian Muslim harmony. I believe good people of every tribe and faith and party must stand against this evil, but first we must name it. Here I stand,” he added.
He concluded that his team’s report would be submitted to U.S. policymakers and international human rights organisations upon return.
This is a developing story…
