US Commission Urges Trump Administration to Appoint Special Envoy for Nigeria
The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has called on the Trump administration to appoint a Special Envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin.
In its latest annual report released in March 2025, USCIRF recommended that the Trump administration “appoint a Special Envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin to maximise U.S. diplomatic efforts to address religious freedom violations and atrocity risk in that region.”
The commission also accused the Nigerian government, led by President Bola Tinubu, and state governments of tolerating or failing to effectively respond to violent attacks carried out by non-state actors who justify their actions on religious grounds.
USCIRF further urged the U.S. State Department to designate Nigeria, along with Afghanistan, India, and Vietnam, as additional Countries of Particular Concern (CPCs).
The report highlighted several incidents of religiously motivated violence in 2024, including attacks by Islamist extremists and Fulani militants that targeted religious communities across Nigeria.
The commission criticized the Nigerian government’s response to the violence, stating that security forces “sometimes remained slow to respond to violence by these groups, resulting in injury or death for members of targeted religious minority communities.
