By Derek VanBuskirk
Published February 10, 2026 at 10:20 AM ET

             House Republicans have introduced a bill Tuesday to prompt U.S. action to document “religious persecution and mass atrocities in Nigeria,” the Daily Caller first learned.

             The Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026 calls on the Secretary of State to give the foreign affairs committees in the House of Representatives and the Senate an annual report on U.S. efforts to address Christian persecution. It also calls on the secretary to consider whether to designate the Fulani ethnic militias a Foreign Terrorist Organization, take a look at sanctioned individuals and weigh whether U.S. assistance in Nigeria encourages Christian persecution.

             New Jersey Republican Rep. Chris Smith, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Africa Subcommittee; Oklahoma Republican Rep. Tom Cole, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee; and West Virginia Republican Rep. Riley Moore co-sponsored the bill. It would continue actions already taken by the legislative and executive branches to combat Nigerian terrorism. 

             The bill also calls on the secretary of state to counter “the hostile foreign exploitation” of illegal Chinese mining operations in Nigeria.

             The bill has already garnered support from other House Republicans, including Florida Rep. and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, Florida Rep. and Appropriations Vice Chairman Mario Diaz-Balart and Michigan Rep. and House Foreign Affairs South and East Asia Subcommittee Chairman Bill Huizenga, according to a statement sent to the Caller from Smith.

             The bill is expected to move through the House quickly and points to actions already taken by President Donald Trump to combat the persecution in Nigeria, according to the statement.

             In November 2025, Trump designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, which allows the executive to use economic and diplomatic tools against Nigeria. He also conducted coordinated strikes with the Nigerian government against the perpetrators on Christmas Day.

             Smith said that the U.S. has a responsibility to follow Trump’s lead by pressuring the Nigerian government to take steps to “address and punish” systemic violence against Christians and non-radical Muslims by Islamist extremists.

People gather around burnt cars near St Theresa Catholic Church after a bomb blast in the Madala Zuba district of Nigeria’s capital Abuja on December 25, 2011. (Photo by SUNDAY AGHAEZE/AFP via Getty Images)

             “The Nigerian government’s blatant denial of the religious persecution occurring within its borders has only enabled the religious-based violence in the country to fester, with Christian deaths and church attacks reaching unprecedented numbers,” Smith said.

             The bill cites the destruction of churches, mass kidnappings, rape and attacks on villages and estimates that 50,000 to 125,000 Christians were martyred from 2009 to 2025.

             “As part of the investigation President Trump asked me to lead, I visited Nigeria and witnessed firsthand the horrors our brothers and sisters in Christ face and saw the security challenges Nigeria faces,” Moore said in the statement, adding that the bill shows that “the United States stands with our persecuted.”

             Judd Saul, the head of Equipping the Persecuted and Truth Nigeria, which supplies on-the-ground reporting of the atrocities, and critic of how the U.S. and Nigeria have addressed the issue, told the Caller that the bill is a “step in the right direction” and applauded Smith and Moore for stepping up for the cause.


This article was published on February 10, 2026 and can be found online at: https://dailycaller.com/2026/02/10/gop-representatives-chris-smith-riley-moore-christian-persecution-nigeria-islam-fulani-militias/