Violence against Christians in Nigeria remains a key concern for the United States, the State Department said this week, a year after the Trump administration accused Nigeria of violating religious freedoms and designated the country a "country of particular concern" for religious freedom.

Assistant Secretary of State Frank Garcia told a panel in Congress on Thursday that the department is treating the issue as a top priority and is working closely with Nigerian authorities to address the violence against Christian communities and hold those responsible to account.

"Unfortunately, the violence has not stopped," Garcia said.

The designation came after President Donald Trump last November threatened military action against the West African nation over the treatment of Christians. The Nigerian government rejected the designation, saying it was based on misinformation and faulty data. Nigerian leaders have maintained that the country is dealing with terrorism, not persecution of Christians, and have said they would welcome American help in fighting Islamist insurgents as long as Nigeria's territorial integrity is respected.

Nigeria's Information Minister, Mohammed Idris, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The violence sits at the center of Nigeria's politics as well. Insecurity tops the list of campaign issues ahead of the country's presidential and parliamentary elections, set for January 16, 2027. Africa's most populous nation is battling an Islamist insurgency, banditry and farmer-herder clashes in its northern regions, as well as kidnapping for ransom in the south.

Assistant Secretary of State Riley Barnes told the panel that Nigeria has hired police officers, deployed forest guards and increased prosecutions and arrests since the designation, but that those steps have not led to greater safety for Christians in the country's Middle Belt region.

Representative Riley Moore, a West Virginia Republican, cited a sharp increase in violence against Christians in Nigeria's central Plateau State and pressed the department on what it is doing to make sure the Nigerian government confronts the militias where Christians are dying. "We cannot take this CPC designation off this country," he said. "They have not done enough."

Nigeria, home to more than 200 ethnic groups practicing Christianity, Islam and traditional faiths, has a long history of coexistence, but it has also seen sporadic violence, often driven by ethnic tensions and competition over scarce resources. Whatever the disputes over how the crisis is described, the suffering of families on every side is real, and the need for prayer and for a just peace is urgent.