By Daphne Psaledakis and MacDonald Dzirutwe
WASHINGTON/LAGOS (Reuters) -The United States is considering actions such as sanctions and Pentagon engagement on counterterrorism as part of a plan to compel the Nigerian government to better protect Christian communities and religious freedom, a senior U.S. State Department official said on Thursday.
Nigeria is under scrutiny from U.S. President Donald Trump, who in early November threatened military action over the treatment of Christians in the country. Nigeria says claims that Christians face persecution misrepresent a complex security situation and do not take into account efforts to safeguard religious freedom.
“The Trump administration is developing a plan to incentivize and compel the Nigerian government to better protect Christian communities and improve religious freedom,” Jonathan Pratt, the senior official leading the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs, told the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday.
“This plan will consider U.S. State and Treasury engagement on sanctions, as well as possible Department of War engagement on counterterrorism, and other efforts to protect religious communities.”
He added that Washington was primarily looking at security provided to the Nigerian government and how it is deploying assets, as well as the sharing of information and intelligence.
In October, Trump added Nigeria back to a “Countries of Particular Concern” list of nations that the U.S. says have violated religious freedom. He has also said he asked the Defense Department to prepare for possible “fast” military action in Nigeria if the West African nation fails to crack down on the killing of Christians, and said he was immediately stopping all aid and assistance to Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and top oil producer.
Nigeria, which has 200 ethnic groups practicing Christianity, Islam and traditional religions, has a long history of peaceful coexistence. But there have also been flare-ups of violence among groups, often exacerbated by ethnic divisions or conflict over scarce resources.
The extremist Islamist armed group Boko Haram has also terrorized northeastern Nigeria, an insurgency that has killed tens of thousands of people over the past 15 years. Human rights experts have said that more Muslims have been killed by Boko Haram than Christians.
A Nigerian delegation is set to meet with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau and officials at the Pentagon, which Trump has renamed the Department of War, while in town this week, Pratt said.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu dispatched his national security adviser to Washington to meet Trump administration officials and U.S. lawmakers. The Nigerian delegation, which arrived on Wednesday, also includes the country’s defense chief, chief of defense intelligence and head of police.
Pratt on Thursday said he does not believe the government of Nigeria has been infiltrated by jihadists.
Jacob McGee, the State Department’s deputy assistant secretary for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, said the designation of Nigeria as a country of particular concern was an important step that had captured the attention of that country’s government, but that a lot more needed to be done.
“We are planning engagement on the ground, both through our embassies there and other trips, to make sure Nigerians hear our very important message that they have to do better,” McGee said.
(Reporting by Daphne Psaledakis and Patricia Zengerle in Washington and Benjamin Ezeamalu and MacDonald Dzirutwe in Lagos; Editing by Matthew Lewis)
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