On Saturday, President Donald Trump threatened military action against Nigeria, spurred on by a religious war in the West African nation that has reportedly seen radical Islamists engage in the mass slaughter of Christians. The threat reflects a stark change in U.S. policy against the nation as former President Joe Biden's administration, including his Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, took little action against the crisis that has claimed 7,000 lives this year alone as of August, the Nigeria-based human-rights NGO International Society for Civil Liberties and the Rule of Law (Intersociety) told Newsweek.
During Trump's first term in office, Trump designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), which is a classification by the president for a nation that has engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom.
Less than a year into Biden's term in November 2021, Biden revoked CPC status for Nigeria after Blinken determined that it did not meet the criteria for "systematic, ongoing, and egregious" violations of religious freedom. The move was criticized by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), which called the designation removal "unexplainable" and "appalling."
