U.S Senators Want Nigeria Reinstated On The ‘Religious Freedom Concern’ List
Date 2022/7/3 11:32:51 | Topic: Nigeria
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I’m The United States has called for the reinstatement of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act.
In a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, by U.S Senator, Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), recent acts of violence targeting Nigerian Christians have underscored the deteriorating state of religious freedom in the country.
The letter partly reads, “Religious violence directed toward Nigerian Christians has worsened in recent years. One report documented more than 4,650 cases of Nigerian Christians who were killed for their faith in 2021.
“Accordingly, Nigeria earns the dubious honour, for the second consecutive year, of being the deadliest country on earth for Christians”
The Senator sighted among many others, the gruesome murder of Deborah Emmanuel Yakubu, a student at Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto state by a violent mob and the attack by gunmen on the St. Francis Catholic Church in Nigeria’s Ondo state, where about 50 worshippers were killed.
Joining Senator Hawley’s letter are Senators Mike Braun (R-Ind.),Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.).
Senator Hawley and his colleagues first wrote to Secretary Blinken on this matter in December 2021, after the State Department inexplicably removed Nigeria from the CPC list.
They added, “Given the abysmal state of religious freedom in Nigeria, it is incumbent upon you to reverse last year’s decision and re-designate the country as a CPC. The moment demands that you do so without delay.”
The senators maintained that such violence has become all too familiar for Christians in Africa’s most populous country.
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