Abuja, 16 December, 2020 / 2:39 pm (ACI Africa).
The Knights of Columbus has praised the United States for listing Nigeria as among the worst countries for religious freedom, and calling renewed attention to the mass killings of Christians in Nigeria.
"Nigeria's Christians have suffered grievously at the hands of Boko Haram and other groups," Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, stated on Wednesday, adding that the murders and kidnappings of Christians now “verge on genocide.”
Anderson made his statement after the State Department last week declared Nigeria is a “country of particular concern (CPC),” a formal designation reserved for the countries where the worst violations of religious freedom are taking place; the list China, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia.
U.S. Religious freedom ambassador Sam Brownback explained on Dec. 8 that the designation of Nigeria was given both for “religious-tinged violence” and terror groups operating in the country without an “adequate government response.”
The Knights of Columbus had been pushing the administration for months to draw attention to the plight of Christians in Nigeria.