The United States will not remove Nigeria from its Country of Particular Concern (CPC) designation over religious freedom concerns while attacks against Christian communities continue, US Congressman Riley Moore has said.
Mr Moore, a Republican representing West Virginia, said the continued violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt remained a major concern and argued that Washington must maintain pressure on the Nigerian government to protect vulnerable communities and hold perpetrators accountable.
His comments followed a recent deadly attack in Plateau State, where dozens of people were reportedly killed while asleep in their homes.
The US Bureau of African Affairs condemned the attack, expressing condolences to the victims’ families and urging the Nigerian government to fulfil its commitments to protect Christian communities and bring those responsible for the violence to justice.
Reacting to the development, Mr Moore said the latest violence demonstrated why Nigeria’s CPC designation should remain in place.
He has previously been a prominent voice in Washington calling for stronger US action over what he describes as the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. In 2025, he introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives condemning the alleged persecution and called for urgent measures to protect Christian communities.
The congressman had also urged then-US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, citing reports of killings, kidnappings and attacks on churches.
Nigeria’s CPC designation has become a point of diplomatic tension between Abuja and Washington, with Nigerian authorities rejecting claims that the country’s security crisis amounts to systematic religious persecution.
The Nigerian government has maintained that insecurity affects Nigerians across religious and ethnic lines and that the country is confronting a complex combination of terrorism, banditry, communal conflict and other forms of criminality.
But Mr Moore has maintained that the scale and persistence of attacks against Christian communities require continued international scrutiny.
The CPC designation, under US religious-freedom legislation, is applied to countries where governments are considered to have engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.
For now, Mr Moore’s position suggests that Washington’s concerns over Nigeria’s security situation — particularly violence affecting Christian communities — remain unresolved.
