Nigeria on Wednesday told foreign diplomats posted to the country that its designation as a violator of religious freedom by the United States was “fundamentally misinformed.”
“Recent external claims suggesting systemic religious persecution in Nigeria are unfounded,” Foreign Ministry permanent secretary Dunoma Umar Ahmed told envoys at a briefing in the capital, Abuja.
Nigeria and the United States have been embroiled in a diplomatic row since President Donald Trump on Friday said he was naming Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) – a State Department designation for religious freedom violations – over the killing of Christians by “radical Islamists”.
The West African nation is home to myriad conflicts that experts say kill both Muslims and Christians, often without distinction.
Trump later threatened military strikes on the country.
The CPC designation “misrepresents Nigeria’s secular constitutional order,” Ahmed said at a packed briefing hall at the foreign ministry offices.
“The state continues to wage a comprehensive counter-terrorism campaign against groups that target Nigerians of all faiths,” he said.
He added that US rhetoric over Nigeria had been “disparaging” and that “dialogue and cooperation” should “remain the standard in engagement between and among sovereign states”.
It was unclear if the US ambassador was present.
Trump suddenly converged last week on the fate of Christians in Nigeria, long a cause celebre among the US political right.
The country’s long-running jihadist insurgency in its northeast, waged by Boko Haram and Islamic State-linked militants, has killed both Muslims and Christians.
The conflict has left more than 40,000 dead and displaced some two million, according to UN estimates.
The Nigerian government on Tuesday said the constitution did not allow religious persecution after US President Donald Trump’s threatened military intervention over the killing of Christians in the country.
“There can’t be a religious persecution that can be supported in any way, shape, or form by the government of Nigeria at any level,” Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar said at a press conference in Berlin.
The comment was the first by a senior Nigerian government official following Trump’s threats on Sunday.
Trump said on social media over the weekend that he had asked the Pentagon to map out a possible plan of attack because “they’re killing the Christians and killing them in very large numbers”.
But Tuggar said Nigeria has a “constitutional commitment to religious freedom and rule of law.”
Africa’s most populous country, which is roughly evenly split between a mostly Christian south and Muslim-majority north, is home to myriad conflicts, which experts say kill both Christians and Muslims, often without distinction.
But claims of Christian “persecution” in Nigeria have found traction online among the US and European right in recent months.
