{"id":14472,"date":"2026-01-10T03:57:18","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T03:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/14472\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T03:57:18","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T03:57:18","slug":"nigeria-now-the-deadliest-place-on-earth-for-a-christian-catholic-activists-in-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/14472\/","title":{"rendered":"Nigeria \u201cnow the deadliest place on earth\u201d for a Christian: Catholic Activists in Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\u201cWhile many of us welcomed 2026 in the safety of our homes, Christian families in Nigeria spent their nights listening to the crackle of gunfire,\u201d the activists say, adding that for Nigerians, the Holy Season of Advent was \u201ca season of terror.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In an effort to stem violence against Christians in Africa\u2019s most populous nation, the U.S.<a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicnewsagency.com\/news\/268689\/in-effort-to-stem-violence-against-christians-us-conducts-airstrikes-on-isis-in-nigeria\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> conducted airstrikes<\/a> on ISIS in Nigeria on Christmas Day of 2025.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. President Donald Trump <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PeteHegseth\/status\/2004332431542022289?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">announced<\/a> on 25 December that with the support of the Nigerian government, the U.S. military carried out strikes against elements of ISIS in Nigeria that \u201chave been targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have previously warned these terrorists that if they did not stop the slaughtering of Christians, there would be hell to pay, and tonight, there was,\u201d Trump said of the December 25 action.<\/p>\n<p>Nigeria\u2019s Ministry of Foreign Affairs <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NigeriaMFA\/status\/2004346591403180167?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">confirmed<\/a> that \u201cprecision hits on terrorist targets\u201d in the country\u2019s northwestern Sokoto state were carried out in cooperation with the United States.<\/p>\n<p>U.S. Secretary of War Pete Hegseth <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/PeteHegseth\/status\/2004332431542022289?s=20\" rel=\"nofollow\">said<\/a> he was \u201cgrateful for Nigerian government support and cooperation\u201d in the counterterrorism effort.<\/p>\n<p>In their January 8 petition, the Catholic activists laud the move taken by the U.S., saying, \u201cThe message was unmistakable: the slaughter of Christians cannot continue without consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>They also acknowledge with appreciation other actions that the U.S. has taken to defend Christians in Nigeria, including designating it as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.state.gov\/countries-of-particular-concern-special-watch-list-countries-entities-of-particular-concern\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Country of Particular Concern<\/a> (CPC) for religious freedom violations.<\/p>\n<p>The designation, they say, \u201cis a powerful legal tool, but it remains a hollow label unless it is backed by decisive action. It is time to turn \u2018concern\u2019 into consequences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe United States has acted. Now the rest of the world\u2019s governments must decide whether they will look away or stand for justice,\u201d the Catholic activists say in their January 8 petition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cWhile many of us welcomed 2026 in the safety of our homes, Christian families in Nigeria spent their&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":14473,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[63,645,647,646],"class_list":{"0":"post-14472","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-africa","8":"tag-africa","9":"tag-article","10":"tag-cna","11":"tag-keyword"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14472"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14472\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14473"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}