WASHINGTON — Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, issued a sharp condemnation Friday of two fresh attacks in Nigeria that have reportedly killed more than 50 people combined in less than a week, renewing his call for the Nigerian government to protect Christian communities and prosecute those responsible.
According to Smith’s office, the attacks killed more than 30 people on Sunday and between 23 and 25 people on Tuesday, though casualty figures were still being confirmed as reports continued to emerge. The violence adds to a bloody stretch in Nigeria’s Plateau State, where recent reporting has described repeated strikes by suspected Fulani militants, including an August 16 assault on Jwak Maitumbi in Mangu Local Government Area that killed at least 30 people and destroyed dozens of homes, shops, health centers and churches, followed two days later by an overnight attack on the nearby Bin Mper community that killed at least 24.
“Despite denials by Nigerian government actors, Christians continue to be slaughtered while Nigerian officials fail to provide adequate protection or hold the perpetrators accountable,” Smith said in a statement. “Enough is enough. The Nigerian government must fulfill its most basic responsibility of protecting its citizens.”
Smith, who has now chaired 13 congressional hearings on Nigeria’s religious persecution crisis, said he was joining Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Frank Garcia in pressing Abuja “to meet their commitments to protect Christian communities and to hold perpetrators of violence accountable.”
“The U.S. State Department’s recent public message underscores the urgent need for concrete action — not more assurances — as deadly violence continues to devastate vulnerable communities,” Smith said.
The congressman also took aim at the Nigerian government’s spending priorities, saying it should not be directing resources toward burnishing its image in Washington while the killings continue. “Instead of spending millions of dollars — $9 million, to be exact — in an attempt to improve its image in Washington, the Nigerian government should redirect those resources towards protecting its people and addressing this grave security crisis,” he said.
The statement follows months of escalating congressional attention to the crisis. Smith and Rep. Riley Moore (R-WV) introduced the Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026 (H.R. 7457) earlier this year, which would require the Secretary of State to submit Congress a comprehensive report on U.S. efforts to address the persecution and mass atrocities. The bill has drawn cosponsors including House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-OK) and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast (R-FL).
The latest violence comes roughly a year after the Trump administration redesignated Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” over religious freedom violations, and after Smith warned in a November hearing that the country had become what one lawmaker called “the deadliest place on Earth to be a Christian.”
Nigerian officials have repeatedly disputed characterizations of the violence as solely religious in nature, pointing to broader security failures, banditry and land conflicts between farming and herding communities that have also claimed Muslim victims. The Nigerian government has not yet issued a public response to Smith’s latest statement.
