Rep. Moore says military action possible over Christian killings in Nigeria

Republican Rep. Riley Moore said the United States could take a range of actions – including sanctions and “even dynamic military action” – in response to what he called the “genocide” of Christians in Nigeria.

Trump named Moore, a member of the Appropriations Committee from West Virginia, to lead the investigation along with Chairman Tom Cole, R-Okla. killing of Christians Islamist militants in the African country.

Frustration over the issue boiled over when Trump this week named Nigeria a country of particular concern and ordered the Pentagon to prepare for military intervention.

In a video on Truth Social this week, Trump threatened to “do something to Nigeria that Nigeria won't be happy about” and to “enter this now disgraced country with guns blazing.”

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Moore told Fox News Digital that the designation opens up “15 different levers” the administration could use against Nigeria, including cutting off arms sales, freezing aid and imposing sanctions on officials or institutions accused of ignoring or aiding sectarian killings.

“All options are on the table here, even kinetic warfare,” Moore said. “This could mean targeted strategic counter-terrorism strikes to remove some of the senior leadership if necessary to stop the killing.”

“We've been providing security assistance to this country since at least 2009 – they've received billions of dollars worth of weapons, training and equipment. And it's a matter of prioritizing what's important to them. And obviously that wasn't one of the most important things.”

West Virginia Republican said he was working with the House Appropriations Committee and the State Department to identify what he called “legislative levers” that could support the administration's response. Moore said he is also consulting with non-governmental organizations and Christian organizations “on the ground” in Nigeria to document the extent of the violence.

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He called the attacks “genocide,” saying Christians were killed at a rate of five to one compared to non-Christians. Moore accused the Nigerian government of “looking the other way” despite receiving billions of US dollars in security aid since 2009.

“They don't take it seriously,” he said. “We had a pastor who warned the government about an impending attack – they called it fake news. Within 24 hours, this pastor and 20 of his parishioners were killed.”

The Nigerian government denies genocide. “The portrayal of Nigeria's security challenges as a targeted campaign against one religious group is a gross distortion of reality. Terrorists attack everyone who rejects their murderous ideology – Muslims, Christians and non-believers,” the presidential office wrote on the X website.

Moore said he and Cole plan to meet with Nigerian officials in Washington this month as part of the investigation and may even send delegations to the country. He added that the United States could still work with the Nigerian government if it showed a willingness to confront extremist groups.

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“It’s not all sticks, there’s carrots,” Moore said. “If they are willing to work with us, it could really lead to a stronger relationship between our countries.”

Nigeria's vibrant and often turbulent cities and villages, with a population of more than 230 million, are home to people from a strikingly diverse range of backgrounds. The country's more than 500 languages ​​and mixture of Islam, Christianity and traditional local beliefs have long been marred by tensions.

Nigeria's religious communities remain sharply divided, with Muslims dominating the northern regions and Christians concentrated in the south.

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Christianity took strong roots in the 19th century when freed slaves educated in Sierra Leone returned home as teachers and missionaries, founding schools, churches and the first communities that continue to shape the identity of southern Nigeria today.

Despite vast oil and mineral wealth, decades of corruption and mismanagement have left much of the country impoverished.

Nigeria's growing reserves of lithium, cobalt, nickel and other rare minerals have attracted quiet U.S. attention as Washington tries to counter China's dominance of Africa's market for critical minerals. The Commerce Department and the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation are considering investment opportunities in Nigeria's nascent lithium industry, but persistent instability in mining regions threatens Western access and future development.

For more than a decade, Nigerian Christians fleeing the northern half of the country have been subjected to Boko Haram violencean Islamist militant group known for its terrorist spectacles. Churches and homes were burned and communities disappeared in the group's nightly raids.

The numbers are difficult to verify, but the International Society for Civil Liberties and Rule of Law reports that between 2009 and 2023, at least 52,000 Christians were killed, about 18,500 were kidnapped and unlikely to survive, and 20,000 churches and Christian schools were attacked.

In 2014, Boko Haram kidnapped and enslaved 276 teenage girls during a raid on a secondary school dormitory. The group regularly arms children as suicide bombers and runs slave markets in captured territories.

But a direct U.S. military campaign would be difficult given current U.S. assets in the country and unlikely, one defense official told Fox News Digital.

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The United States currently does not have a permanent military base in Nigeria, although small teams of American special operations advisers and trainers periodically work with Nigerian forces as part of U.S. Africa Command programs.

Over the past decade, Washington has approved about $600 million in security assistance to Nigeria, mostly aimed at fighting terrorism in the country's northeast.