Whereas in 2020, the Department of State designated Nigeria a Country of Particular Concern (CPC) pursuant to the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 ( 22 U.S.C. 6401 et seq. ), finding that it is engaging in or tolerating systematic, ongoing, egregious violations of religious freedom ; Whereas, in 2021 and 2022, the Department of State omitted Nigeria from its CPC list; Whereas, in 2022, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) recommended that the Department of State redesignate Nigeria as a CPC and found the Department of State’s decision to delist Nigeria inexplicable , and a result of turning a blind eye to that country’s particularly severe religious freedom violations ; Whereas USCIRF finds that in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, nonstate armed groups also conducted attacks on houses of worship, religious ceremonies, and religious leaders, with Christian communities and their churches hit particularly hard and that the Nigerian Government has often failed to respond sufficiently to violence against religious leaders and congregations ; Whereas, in January 2023, Open Doors reported in Nigeria there were 5,014 Christians killed in 2022, nearly 90 percent of the total number of Christians killed worldwide … [and] almost 90 percent of kidnappings carried out against Christians in 2022 ; Whereas according to some experts, the northern-based Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association, a Fulani herdsmen advocacy group, supports reestablishing a Fulani empire, modeled upon the caliphate in northern Nigeria established by Usman dan Fodio, in the early 19th century; Whereas Nigeria is an ethnically and religiously diverse Federal State, and traditionally political power has been balanced between Muslims and Christians, Northerners and Southerners, and among Nigeria’s 371 different ethnic groups