For decades, Christians in Africa have faced intense persecution at the hands of Islamic extremists. That persecution has especially focused on Christians in Nigeria and Sudan, two war-torn nations that President Donald Trump now wants to address.
Last month, Trump designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, saying that “Christianity is facing an existential threat.” Then, last week, the president vowed to take more action to end the civil war in Sudan. Both countries are in the midst of upheaval and have large Christian populations, whose faith puts a target on their backs.
Trump’s designation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern means that the United States will seek to actively address Nigeria’s violations of religious freedom and opens the door to potential economic penalties.
“When Christians, or any such group, is slaughtered like is happening in Nigeria (3,100 versus 4,476 Worldwide), something must be done!” Trump said.
For Nigerian Christians, the Country of Particular Concern designation could be a useful tool to push the Nigerian government to take more action to protect Christians from Islamic extremists, according to Ryan Brown, CEO of Open Doors U.S., an organization that helps raise awareness and get aid to persecuted Christians.
The situation in Nigeria has gained attention thanks to the Trump administration, along with some unlikely cultural figures who have called out the persecution against Christians in the country, including left-wing political commentator Bill Maher and pop star Nicki Minaj. Minaj even met with Trump administration officials about the issue earlier this month and raised awareness about Christian persecution in Nigeria in front of the United Nations.
The slaughter of Christians in Nigeria has become a full-blown genocide, according to on-the-ground accounts and data from recent years. Just this year, more than 7,000 Christians have reportedly been killed for their faith in Nigeria, including 250 Christians who were killed by Islamic extremists in the Yelwata village massacre in June. Research on worldwide Christian persecution suggests that Nigeria accounts for around 80% of the Christian deaths worldwide that come from persecution, according to Open Doors.
Nigeria’s government has denied that Christians in the country are being systematically targeted, saying, “There is no Christian genocide in Nigeria,” but it has agreed to discuss the issue with the United States. Last week, the Trump administration took more steps to address persecution in Nigeria, with War Secretary Pete Hegseth meeting with the country’s national security adviser.
“Under [President Trump’s] leadership, [the Department of War] is working aggressively with Nigeria to end the persecution of Christians by jihadist terrorists,” Hegseth said.
Brown told The Daily Wire that Nigerian Christians “would certainly say that the Nigerian government has not done enough to protect the freedoms and provide safety for the men and women on the ground there.”
A general view of a catholic Church in Maiduguri on November 3, 2025. (Photo by Audu MARTE / AFP) (Photo by AUDU MARTE/AFP via Getty Images)
Some media outlets have also scrutinized claims of targeted violence toward Christians in Nigeria, writing that the violence in the African nation is too complicated to say that Christians are being systemically wiped out. But Brown told The Daily Wire that the reports of violence against Christians in Nigeria are not exaggerating the extent of the situation.
“These are realities on the ground that Christians are facing. In Nigeria, this has really been a multiple-year trend,” Brown said. “I was with a pastor from Nigeria a couple weeks ago, and he said for the better part of 15 years, he’s been trying to tell this story to the world, and he’s been just so thankful that the collective attention finally is seeming to be raised.”
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Nigeria received more attention earlier this month when more than 300 students and 12 staff members were kidnapped from a Catholic boarding school by armed men. That mass kidnapping came shortly after 25 girls were abducted from a government boarding school in Nigeria and after an attack on a church, where at least two people were killed, and the pastor was abducted.
A pair of shoes is seen inside a student dormitory at St. Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri, Agwarra local government, Niger state, on November 23, 2025. Gunmen raided the school early on November 21, taking 303 children and 12 teachers in one of the largest mass kidnappings in Nigeria. (Photo by Ifeanyi Immanuel Bakwenye / AFP via Getty Images)
Each year, Open Doors releases a “World Watch List” which shows where Christians face the most persecution. In its 2025 list, released in January, Nigeria was near the top at 7th. Open Doors uses research teams to follow news updates in countries around the world and on-the-ground relationships with Christians in numerous countries, according to Brown.
Islamic extremists with terror groups, such as Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, are targeting Christians mainly in the country’s northern regions, but the violence isn’t completely centered on Christians. Muslims with different ethnicities from the terrorists are also killed for political and religious reasons.
“There are so many different contributing factors that are at play here. It’s a complicated situation,” said Brown. But he added that the nuance doesn’t mean the world should look past the violence targeting Christians.
“Some have said because it’s nuanced and complicated, the conclusion we should draw is Christian persecution is not happening. We would look at those same nuances and complexities and say no, it’s an oversimplification to say that Christian persecution is not part of the fabric of what’s being woven here,” Brown said.
Nigerian Christians continue to hold their faith as they face threats and violence from radical Islamic terrorists, and they are hopeful that President Trump’s focus on their plight will result in positive steps being taken toward religious freedom. When Trump designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern, Brown said that Nigerian Christian leaders had “an incredible sense of gratitude and thankfulness,” but added that they also recognized there was a lot of work to be done to address Christian persecution in the African nation.
The Trump administration is not just seeking to end the persecution of Christians in Nigeria — it also has its sights set on ending the war in Sudan, a conflict that has resulted in the deaths of numerous Christians and Muslims. Like in Nigeria, the violence against Christians in Sudan spans decades and is perpetrated by radical Islamic extremists.
Gasim Domkog, a pastor who grew up in Sudan before coming to America, told The Daily Wire that the violence against Christians has been nonstop as the country has gone through regime changes and civil war.
“We went through a lot. I personally went through a lot,” Domkog said, adding that many members of his own family have been killed by the Islamic extremist violence.
“It’s very rare to find anybody from Sudan that has not had people from their family that has been killed,” added Domkog, who now leads an Arabic-speaking church in Nashville and ministers to Christians who came out of Islam.
Along with facing intense persecution for their faith, Sudanese Christians are also affected by the civil war that has torn the country apart. Sudan’s current civil war, which started in 2023, is fought between the government and the Rapid Support Forces, a powerful Islamic militant group seeking to gain control of the country. More than 150,000 people have been killed in the war, and over 12 million have been forced to flee their homes.
AL DABBAH, SUDAN – NOVEMBER 8: Sudan’s Sovereignty Council Chairman and Army Commander Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan visits the newly established Al-Afadh camp in Al Dabbah, Northern State, where tens of thousands of Sudanese have taken refuge after being displaced by clashes following the Rapid Support Forces’ takeover of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur. (Photo by Stringer/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Sudan ranks 5th on the Open Doors “World Watch” list of countries where Christians face the most persecution. Violence against Christians in Sudan is perpetrated by the radical Islamic extremist groups that vie for control of the country. Often, these groups are controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood.
The country has been unstable since the early 1980s, when civil war broke out and continued until 2005. Following more than 20 years of conflict, South Sudan, which is made up mostly of Christians, broke away from Sudan and formed its own country in 2011.
Similar to the Muslim extremists in Nigeria, terrorists in Sudan also target Muslims who have ethnic differences. In the war-torn region of Darfur, militants have gone door-to-door killing thousands of people. Evidence of the mass killings could be seen from satellite images, which showed blood-soaked neighborhoods in Darfur. The killings took place immediately after the Rapid Response Forces took control of the city. Most of the people killed in Darfur are Muslims and are targeted because they have darker skin, Domkog told The Daily Wire.
“At first, the jihadists were using religious war as holy war, but now they’re focusing on ethnicity,” Domkog said. “They say that if you’re not of Arab descent, you need to be killed. Now, they’re killing their own people.”
“The agenda was either to become Muslim and obey their rules and to be under Sharia Law or they will get rid of you, and that’s what they’re doing,” he added.
A Sudanese woman who fled El-Fasher in Darfur carries jerrycans of water at the Al-Afad camp for displaced people in the town of Al-Dabba, northern Sudan, on November 21, 2025. (Photo by Ebrahim Hamid / AFP) (Photo by EBRAHIM HAMID/AFP via Getty Images)
President Trump said last week that after meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, he has agreed that the United States will “do something very powerful having to do with Sudan.”
The war will be a complicated web for the Trump administration to address. Evidence presented by human rights groups shows that the United Arab Emirates is the main backer of the Rapid Response Forces, while other nations, including China, Iran, Egypt, Turkey, and Russia, send weapons and ammunition to both sides of the war. Trump acknowledged that the war in Sudan will not be an easy fix, but added that he believes it’s important to seek peace in the country.
“I thought it was just something that was crazy and out of control,” Trump said. “But I just see how important that is … and we’re going to start working in Sudan.”
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