Pramila Jayapal, a member of the United States house of representatives, has tackled President Donald Trump’s approach to addressing allegations of Christian genocide in Nigeria.
Trump recently re-designated Nigeria a “country of particular concern” and threatened that the US military would go into the country “guns-a-blazing to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities”.
Speaking at a US congressional hearing on the matter in Washington DC on Thursday, Jayapal said the portrayal of a Christian persecution in Nigeria felt “simplistic” and does not account for the country’s “intersectional diversity”.
“Certainly, religion is a contributing factor to the violence, but a review by the Search for Common Ground found that in Nigeria’s Middle Belt region, religion was not a primary driver of conflict,” she said.
“Instead, violence has been directed against both Christians and Muslims, regardless of religion, at the hands of armed terror groups like Boko Haram and ISIS West Africa, or fuelled by differences in lifestyle between farmer and herder groups compounded by climate change and governance issues.
