Rep. Riley M. Moore, a member of the US House of Representatives who represents West Virginia’s Second District, has encouraged President Donald Trump to declare Nigeria a Country of Particular Concerns (CPC).
The lawmaker begged the US government to immediately stop arms sales and all related technical assistance to Nigeria until the “Nigerian government demonstrates that it is sufficiently committed to ending the reign of persecution and slaughter” in a letter dated October 6, 2025, sent to Marco Rubio, Secretary of State, US Department of State in Washington, DC.
Moore asserted that “Muslim extremist groups” have brutally killed at least 7,000 Christians between January and September 2025 alone.
He emphasized that “between Boko Haram uprising in 2009 and 2025, 19,100 churches in Nigeria have been attacked or destroyed,” and claimed that since 2015, at least 250 Catholic priests have been attacked or killed nationwide.
According to reports, former President Joe Biden overturned the designation of Nigeria as a CPC, which Trump had done during his first term.
Political analyst Van Jones, TV host Bill Maher, and US Senator Ted Cruz had also claimed that Nigeria is seeing a “Christian genocide.”
Senator Cruz claimed that Christians in Nigeria were being systematically targeted and slaughtered in what he called “genocide” during a recent podcast discussion with American talk show host Bill Maher.
However, the Federal Government later rejected the claims, claiming that no specific religion is the target of the nation’s worsening security situation.
