The United States has imposed visa ban on individuals who have directed, authorised, or supported violations of religious freedom.
The Department of State, in a statement on Wednesday titled ‘Combating Egregious Anti-Christian Violence in Nigeria and Globally’, said the United States was taking decisive action in response to the mass killings and violence against Christians by radical Islamic terrorists, Fulani ethnic militias and other violent actors in Nigeria and beyond.
The statement said: “A new policy under Section 212(a)(3)(C) of the Immigration and Nationality Act will allow the State Department to restrict visa issuance to individuals who have directed, authorised, significantly supported, participated in, or carried out violations of religious freedom and, where appropriate, their immediate family members.
“As President Trump made clear, the ‘United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other countries.’ This policy will apply to Nigeria and any other governments or individuals engaged in violations of religious freedom.”
The statement noted that the visa restrictions could be applied “to Nigeria and any other governments or individuals engaged in violations of religious freedom.”
The announcement followed a briefing by US House Republicans on Tuesday, highlighting rising religious violence in Nigeria.
The session was convened at the direction of President Donald Trump, who instructed the House Appropriations Committee on October 31 to investigate what he described as the slaughter of Christians in the country.
The briefing, led by House Appropriations Vice Chair and National Security Subcommittee Chairman Mario Díaz-Balart, included members of the House Appropriations and House Foreign Affairs Committees, as well as religious freedom experts.
Participants included Representatives Robert Aderholt, Riley Moore, Brian Mast, Chris Smith, US Commission on International Religious Freedom Chair Vicky Hartzler, Alliance Defending Freedom International’s Sean Nelson, and Dr Ebenezer Obadare of the Council on Foreign Relations.
President Bola Tinubu recently approved Nigeria’s delegation to the new US–Nigeria Joint Working Group, formed to implement security agreements from high-level talks in Washington led by National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu.
The move follows growing concerns over terrorism, banditry, and targeted attacks on Christians in Nigeria, prompting increased US scrutiny and warnings about the protection of vulnerable faith communities.
On November 20, the US House Subcommittee on Africa opened a public hearing to review Trump’s redesignation of Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern, placing the country under heightened scrutiny for alleged religious-freedom violations.
Lawmakers examined the potential consequences of the designation, which could pave the way for sanctions against Nigerian officials found complicit in religious persecution.
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