Pope Leo XIV condemned the killings of up to 200 people in the Yelewata community in Nigeria earlier this year. (Associated Press)
Hartzler said Nigeria has taken some initial corrective steps — including reassigning about 100,000 police officers from VIP protection details — but warned the country is entering a "coordinated and deeply troubling period of escalated violence." She recommended targeted sanctions on Nigerian officials "who have demonstrated complicity," visa restrictions, blocking U.S.-based assets, and conditioning foreign and humanitarian aid on measurable accountability.
She also urged Congress to direct the Government Accountability Office to conduct a review of past U.S. assistance and said Abuja should retake villages seized from Christian farming communities so widows and children can return home.
Dr. Ebenezer Obadare of the Council on Foreign Relations offered the sharpest challenge to the Nigerian government’s claim that the violence is not religiously motivated. He said the idea Boko Haram and other militant groups target Christians and Muslims equally is a "myth," arguing the groups "act for one reason and one reason only: religion." Any higher Muslim casualty count, he said, reflects geography, not equal targeting.
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Obadare described Boko Haram as fundamentally opposed to democracy and said the Nigerian military is "too corrupt and incompetent" to dismantle jihadist networks without strong external pressure. He urged the U.S. to press the Nigerian government to disband armed groups enforcing Islamic law, confront corruption inside the security forces, and demonstrate genuine intent to curb religious violence. He added that Washington should insist Nigerian officials respond immediately to early warnings of impending attacks.
Sean Nelson of Alliance Defending Freedom International added that Nigeria is "the deadliest country in the world for Christians," claiming more Christians are killed there than in all other countries combined and at a rate "five times" higher than Muslims when adjusted for population. He said extremists also target Muslims who refuse to embrace their extreme ideology, which he argued further undercuts Abuja’s narrative that the crisis is driven mainly by criminality or local disputes.
With a population of more than 230 million, Nigeria’s vibrant and often turbulent cities and villages are home to people of strikingly diverse backgrounds. The nation's roughly 120 million-strong Muslim population dominates the north, while some 90 million Christians are centered in the southern half of the country.
Catholics gather for Mass at the Church of the Assumption in Lagos on April 21, 2025. (OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT/AFP via Getty Images)
Hartzler noted that Nigeria has recently begun taking several steps that could signal a shift toward confronting the crisis more directly. She pointed to President Bola Tinubu’s decision to pull about 100,000 police officers from VIP bodyguard assignments and redistribute them across the country, calling it "a promising start after years of neglect." She said the move reflects growing recognition inside Nigeria’s political leadership that the violence has reached an intolerable level.
She also highlighted comments last week from Nigeria’s speaker of the House, who acknowledged the country is facing a "coordinated and deeply troubling period of escalated violence." Hartzler said that acknowledgment — coupled with a push from the Nigerian House majority leader for more intensive legislative oversight — suggests the government may finally be admitting the scale and severity of the attacks.
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Even with these developments, Hartzler warned the measures are far from sufficient. She emphasized that the Nigerian government must show clear intent to "quell injustice," act quickly when early warning signs of attacks appear, and commit to transparency and accountability if the recent steps are going to amount to meaningful progress.
The Nigerian Embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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