At the 12 March US House of Representatives hearing on religious persecutions in Nigeria, Africa Subcommittee Chairman Chris Smith called on Congress and the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Nigeria for extremist group Boko Haram persecuting Christians.
Oddly enough, the insurgents have long sought to overthrow the Nigerian government that is now under threat of US sanctions. Boko Haram aims to govern the country under their radical version of Sharia law and has been active since 2009, particularly in northern Nigeria. By 2021, the group’s trrorism had displaced 2.4 million people in the Lake Chad region. In January alone, a Boko Haram attack in the northeastern state of Borno, the epicentre of the trror attacks, reportedly k*lled 40 civilians, just a drop in the state’s 38,000-person death toll between 2011 and 2023.
Although Smith’s request may sound noble, the irony is that US Congressman Scott Perry claimed on 13 February that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) had been funding t*rrorist organisations, including Boko Haram, Al Qaeda and ISIS.
Nigerians have long sounded the alarm on foreign powers’ role in strengthening Boko Haram’s capacity. On 18 February, Nigeria’s former foreign minister, Bolaji Akinyemi, also lodged similar claims to Perry’s. He said that investigations revealed that locals report foreigners delivering weapons and supplies to the militants.
Boko Haram does indeed pose a threat to Nigeria’s security. However, in light of these accusations and given the United States’ long history of manufacturing crises by arming t*rrorists to destabilise states before swooping in with their ‘Captain America’ cape, can US sanctions really be the answer? What do you think?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
Video credit: House Foreign Affairs Committee Republicans on YouTube (@HouseForeignGOP on X)
Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3a4L11Wj_6A
https://chrissmith.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=413555
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo4y52el2_A
https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2025/01/nigeria-boko-haram-must-end-vicious-killing-spree/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8233023
https://www.statista.com/statistics/1197570/deaths-caused-by-boko-haram-in-nigeria