Worthy Christian News > US News > Religious Rights Groups Outraged At Biden Administration’s Omission of Nigeria From Its Annual List of Countries of Particular Concern

Religious Rights Groups Outraged At Biden Administration’s Omission of Nigeria From Its Annual List of Countries of Particular Concern

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Calling for Congressional hearings, international religious rights groups have slammed the Biden administration for omitting Nigeria from its annual list of Countries of Particular Concern on Thursday, the Christian Post reports. Despite well over 52,000 Christians having been slaughtered and five million displaced by Islamic jihadists in the country since 2009, this is the third year running that Nigeria has been left off the US CPC list.

In condemning the absence of Nigeria on the new CPC list, ADF International’s Global Counsel for Religious Freedom Sean Nelson said in a statement Friday: “More Christians are being killed in Nigeria for their faith than in all other countries combined,” the Christian Post reports.

“We are disappointed and deeply concerned that the Biden administration again has failed to designate Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern for its egregious violations of religious freedom,” Nelson said. “The United States should increase pressure on Nigeria for the blatant violations of religious freedom occurring in the country.”

In a separate statement calling for congressional hearings into “the failure of the State Department to follow [its] recommendations [to add Nigeria to the CPC list,” the US Commission on International Religious Freedom asserted, “there is no justification as to why the State Department did not designate Nigeria … as a Country of Particular Concern, despite its own reporting and statements.”

The US State Department has acknowledged that “significant violations of religious freedom also occur in countries that are not designated,” CP reports.