UNITED States Congressman, Riley Moore, has urged the Nigerian government to take swift and decisive action against armed groups in the Middle Belt.
In reaction to the abduction of children and teachers from St. Mary’s Catholic School in Niger State on Friday, Moore in a post on his X handle on Saturday, expressing outrage over the reported attack.
“We now know that more than 300 children and 12 teachers have been kidnapped from St Mary’s Catholic School in Nigeria. As a father, seeing these attacks makes my stomach turn,” he wrote.
Moore called on authorities to ramp up efforts against those responsible for the violence, insisting that the government “must disarm the radical Muslim Fulani militants terrorising the Middle Belt.”
“The Nigerian government must disarm the radical Muslim Fulani militants terrorising the Middle Belt. The persecution of Christians in Nigeria is escalating out of control. I believe it is now a genocide,” the congressman wrote.
He urged stronger collaboration between Abuja and Washington to tackle insecurity and warned that continued attacks could prompt action from the US administration.
“It is up to the Nigerian government to work with the United States to stop the killings and kidnappings of our brothers and sisters in Christ. This human tragedy has to end, or else, @POTUS has made it clear that he will take action to stop this tragedy,” he added.
Moore comments come amid a wave of abductions and violent attacks on boarding schoolgirls in northern Nigeria.
The ICIR reported on Monday that gunmen stormed Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School in Maga, Kebbi State, kidnapping at least 25 students.
A teacher was killed while trying to protect girls during the attack and a security guard later died in hospital from gunshot wounds.
An official of Danko Wasagu council, Hussaini Aliyu, told the BBC on November 19 that two girls among the 25 students managed to escape, explaining that the girls ran away across farmland as their armed captors were leading them into the bushes.
Aliyu added that though one of the girls needed medical treatment because she hurt her leg while running in the bushes, the girls were “back and are safe.”
Since Monday, a team of soldiers, police and volunteers have been combing forested areas in an attempt to rescue the students, but gunmen stormed St. Mary’s Papiri Private Catholic Secondary School in the Papiri community of Agwara Local Government Area, Niger State, in a fresh attack and abducted scores of students and teachers, in the early hours of Friday November 21, making it the second mass abduction within a week.
The recent attacks have led the federal and state government issuing directive over the total shutdown of public and private schools across the country over security threats, as many of the unity schools across the country had started complying by shutting down and asking students to vacate.
The ICIR reported that the Director of Senior Secondary Education at the Federal Ministry of Education, Binta Abdulkadir, directing the shutting down all 41 Unity Schools in the country with immediate effect over growing spate of abductions.
Similarly, the Plateau, Katsina, Taraba, Adamawa, and Niger State governments directed the immediate closure of all basic schools respectively between late Friday and early Saturday citing urgent need for preventive action.
Moore held a meeting with a Nigerian delegation led by National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu on Wednesday in Washington, DC, and he said their discussion focused on counterterrorism strategies and protecting vulnerable communities, describing the engagement as frank, honest, and productive.
The Nigerian delegation included several top government and security officials, including the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Bianca Ojukwu; Inspector-General of Police Kayode Egbetokun; Attorney-General of the Federation Lateef Fagbemi (SAN); Chief of Defence Staff General Olufemi Olatunbosun Oluyede; and Chief of Defence Intelligence Lt Gen Emmanuel Undiendeye, among others.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, said during an interview on Channels TV on Friday that meeting is in response to the decision of US President Donald Trump who said that Christianity faces “an existential threat” in Nigeria, warning that if the Nigerian government fails to curb the killings, the US response would be fast, vicious, and sweet.
Idris, said that the Nigerian delegation in the US is working to correct what he described as misleading narratives about the country’s security situation, particularly allegations of religious persecution.
Nanji is an investigative journalist with the ICIR. She has years of experience in reporting and broadcasting human angle stories, gender inequalities, minority stories, and human rights issues. She has documented sexual war crimes in armed conflict, sex for grades in Nigerian Universities, harmful traditional practices and human trafficking.