CV NEWS FEED // International Christian Concern (ICC) has joined the ranks of numerous human rights organizations in criticizing the Biden administration for failing to place Nigeria on its religious persecution watchlist.
ICC President Jeff King has joined the ranks of ADF International and the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) calling the administration’s failure to redesignate Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern” (CPC) a politically motivated “disaster.”
Backlash ensued from dozens of human rights organizations last week after the U.S. State Department released its 2023 list of Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) for religious persecution, opting for the third year in a row to leave Nigeria off its list despite continued Islamist violence against Christians in the country.
According to ICC’s latest press release, King censured the U.S. government and State Department for prioritizing “political and economic complexities” over Christians in Nigeria who “don’t care about American politics” but about “their villages and families [who] are being annihilated.”
He continued:
Nigeria is one of the world’s absolute worst places for anti-Christian violence this year. It’s my opinion that this happens year after year not in spite of the Nigerian government but because these attacks are aided and abetted by actors within the government. It’s tragic that the State Department seems to ignore the facts and simply look the other way.
As CatholicVote previously reported, the most recent terrorist attacks which took place over Christmas in Plateau State, Nigeria resulted in the deaths of over 200 Christians.
“The Nigerian government continues to spin the narrative that they are doing the best they can, but that the conflict is beyond their control,” King said, continuing: “After 20 years, this excuse no longer works.”
The State Department’s annual CPC watchlist includes countries where the most serious religious freedom violations occurred throughout the year, while less egregious offenders are put on a Special Watch List (SWL) and terrorist groups are categorized as Entities of Particular Concern (EPC).
