Truth Nigeria Alleged Extrajudicial Killings in Two States
As lawmakers and religious freedom watchdogs call for restoring a black-list human rights label for Nigeria, chilling media reports allege that Nigerian soldiers have committed extrajudicial killings in two separate states in recent days.
Rep. Chris Smith chaired a subcommittee hearing Tuesday to hear a litany of religious freedom violations that cry out for U.S. action, chiefly in India, Viet Nam, Nicaragua and Nigeria.
“Nigeria is like a slow-motion genocide,” said the chairman of the Bipartisan United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), Rabbi Abraham Cooper. “In Nigeria the religious freedom conditions have remained abysmal,” he said, pointing to “blasphemy laws and armed attacks on believers that have continued to worsen.” In Nigeria the State Department’s own reporting corroborates these violations that justify restoring to Nigeria the label of “Country of Particular Concern,” considered a black-list term, which may prevent the U.S. government’s granting a bilateral trade agreement or may cause a conditioning of U.S. aid. Rep. Smith has sponsored a House Resolution (HR 82) that would instruct the State Department to do so…
