U.S. ‘must balance other interests’ in Nigeria, officials say as Christian persecution continues

Political officials and foreign policy analysts are calling for the Nigerian government to enhance its response to ongoing violence against Christians as U.S. troops are set to withdraw from the region at the end of September.

Following an Aug. 28 event at the Hudson Institute, officials told Erik Rosales, EWTN News Capitol Hill correspondent, that while the U.S. remains committed to shedding light on ongoing persecution of Christians in Nigeria, State Department officials are faced with having to weigh the greater good with responding to every attack.

“Itʼs a significant trading partner in the African context for the United States,” Josh Meservey, senior fellow at the Hudson Institute, told Rosales.

“Itʼs the largest, itʼs the most populous country in Africa. Itʼs the largest economy,” he said. “So these things do really matter. And so as much as weʼre concerned about the violence and we, we must remain concerned, the U.S. government has to balance other interests.”

Latest numbers from advocacy groups found that more than 7,000 Christians have been killed in the first seven months of 2026 alone, while thousands more have been kidnapped.

“The situation has not really changed too much. We may say that the daily attacks of hundreds or 50 that were killed in the past is not — itʼs no longer like that — but people are still being killed,” Father Remigius Ihyula, former director of the Catholic Diocese of Makurdiʼs Justice and Peace Commission in Nigeria, told “EWTN News Nightly” on Aug. 28.

Tibor Nagy, former assistant secretary of the Bureau of African Affairs at the State Department, called for “cooperating with the Nigerians, finding solutions, doing training, maybe helping the Nigerians design a law-and-order system that has local forces instead of just federal forces.”

“There are solutions out there but the Nigerians have to solve this at the end of the day,” he told Rosales.

Meanwhile, Nigerian advocates said U.S. withdrawal from the region would result in heavy consequences for vulnerable communities. “If the U.S. doesnʼt follow through, there will be hell to pay. Christians will be attacked massively,” said Emmanuel Ogebe, a Nigerian-American human rights attorney.