Outrage is finally rising in America as reports pour in of Christians being slaughtered in Nigeria while elites and the mainstream media look the other way. Open Doors now ranks Nigeria among the worst places on earth for believers, and their numbers show entire communities being driven from ancestral lands while churches are torched and pastors murdered. This is not abstract foreign policy — it is a moral crisis demanding the same clarity we would apply anywhere Christians are being persecuted.
The Yelwata massacre in Benue state this past June is emblematic: villagers burned alive, charred bodies and entire marketplaces destroyed as survivors fled with nothing but pain and questions. Reuters and on-the-ground reports documented roughly a hundred killed in that one night, a vivid reminder that these are not isolated incidents but coordinated waves of violence against farming communities. Quietly, whole regions are being hollowed out while international attention fixates elsewhere.
This violence is not limited to one state — Plateau and Benue have seen repeated, brutal raids with dozens killed and thousands displaced, and attacks have continued across Nigeria’s Middle Belt and the northeast. The Nigerian government publicly condemns the bloodshed, but citizens say security forces are failing to protect them and killers operate with impunity. While Washington debates semantics, Christian families are burying loved ones and rebuilding graves, not headlines.
Washington’s debate over labeling these atrocities — and whether the numbers meet someone’s rigid definition of “genocide” — is a grotesque distraction from action. Even reporting from major outlets shows data is messy and that violence affects many communities, but the lived reality for countless Christians is terror, displacement, and a government that often cannot or will not stop the killers. Our response should be measured but firm: moral clarity, targeted pressure, and consequences for those who tolerate or abet these crimes.
Don’t believe the complacent chorus insisting this is mere “resource conflict” with no religious element; those talking points absolve perpetrators and let persecution continue. The mainstream press has a responsibility to name the victims and the motives, and Americans of faith must refuse to let this suffering be smothered by indifference or partisan spin. We must call out the cowardice of those who choose comfort over truth and demand accountability for the blood on the ground.
Conservative leaders in Congress and faith communities are rightly pressing for concrete measures: restore hard designations where warranted, impose targeted sanctions on the militias and officials who enable them, and increase support for humanitarian and protective assistance for persecuted churches and villages. Financial aid tied to accountability, diplomatic pressure, and sanctuary pathways for threatened families are not left-wing fantasies — they are the moral and practical actions that free people expect from a country that still stands for religious liberty.
This is a test of our principles. If we shrug and wait for tomorrow’s headlines to move on, we are complicit in a slow-motion ethnic and religious cleansing of Christian communities in Nigeria. Americans who love freedom must speak loudly, vote responsibly, and press leaders to protect the persecuted — because defending the oppressed overseas is part of defending the freedom that built this nation.