…As US, FG, AU Split on Nigeria’s Bloodshed
By UbongAbasi Ise
The crisis of insecurity in Nigeria has dramatically escalated onto the international stage with the Save Nigeria Group USA organizing a high-profile protest on Capitol Hill, Washington DC, scheduled for December 1, 2025.
The rally’s central message is to “STOP THE CHRISTIAN GENOCIDE” calling for immediate and significant intervention by the United States government regarding insecurity, alleged genocide, and illicit trade in Nigeria. The requests specifically target both the executive and legislative branches of the U.S. government, emphasizing the need for urgent action.
The Save Nigeria Group USA is challenging the commitment of the Nigerian government, stating that it is not willing to confront radical Islamic terrorism and asserts that decisive action is needed, explicitly calling for President Donald Trump’s US military action against the terrorists.
At the rally grounds, the organizers will be urging the U.S. Congress to utilize the Magnitsky Act to target individuals allegedly involved in conflict within Nigeria. This request involves demanding the U.S. Congress to name, sanction, freeze assets, and stop travel for all implicated in the genocide in Nigeria.
The planned demonstration aligns with the aggressive posture of many U.S. officials and political figures who are driving a strong narrative that the widespread violence in Nigeria constitutes “Christian genocide,” claiming that Nigerian government policies have created an environment conducive to persecution.
Recall that the Trump administration previously designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern” and issued stern threats of a complete aid cutoff and even military action, demanding that the Nigerian government guarantee the safety of Christians.
Texas’s Senator Ted Cruz, via his tweet and subsequent statements, has been a prominent voice on the issue, stating that the enforcement of sharia law and a “tolerance of Islamist violence” by Nigerian officials have allowed Christians to be “persecuted and slaughtered.” The Senator also warned that the Nigerian government is now waging a “media campaign to escape exposure and accountability.”
Furthermore, Rep. Riley Moore explicitly called the violence a “genocide” and pressed for extreme measures, including sanctions and military action.
However, the Nigerian Federal Government and the African Union, AU, are firmly rejecting these claims, framing the violence instead as generalized insecurity and terrorism.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, at the 5th National Advertising Conference 2025 in Abuja recently, dismissed the genocide claim as a “false and damaging distortion.” The Minister asserts that the security challenges are driven by indiscriminate terrorists and extremists who cause suffering for “All Nigerians: Christians, Muslims, and people of other faiths,” and that these groups do not target a specific religious or ethnic community. He charged communication professionals with fighting this “communications war” and defending the nation’s image from false narratives, a strategy bolstered by the planned implementation of the National Values Charter Framework.
This rejection is strongly supported by the AU. Commission Chairman Mahmoud Ali Youssouf declared at the United Nations that there is “no genocide in northern Nigeria.” He argued that the complex events in Nigeria do not compare to atrocities in places like Sudan, noting that the “first victims of Boko Haram are Muslims, not Christians.”
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Offering a more temperate perspective, the United Nations spokesman Stéphane Dujarric acknowledged that the Nigerian government “has been struggling with an insurgency that has been killing people, whether Muslims, Christians or others,” and advised that any necessary assistance should be provided with the cooperation of Nigerian authorities.
