First Daily News reports that the United States House of Representatives set a hearing for Thursday, November 12, 2026 to examine Nigeria's efforts to protect Christian communities and address insecurity in the Middle Belt. The session is titled One Year Later: Assessing Nigeria's Efforts to Protect Christians and Secure the Middle Belt. Rep. Chris Smith, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Africa, was to chair it.
His office announced the session on Monday, November 9, following a formal notice published on November 5. It was scheduled for 11 a.m. in Room 2172 of the Rayburn House Office Building in Washington, and the proceedings were to be streamed live on YouTube. According to First Daily News, lawmakers were to assess the Nigerian government's response to attacks on Christian communities, extremist violence and efforts to prosecute perpetrators. They were also to consider measures to strengthen the protection of vulnerable populations.
Two panels were set. The first was to feature Frank Garcia, Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, and Riley Barnes, Assistant Secretary for Democracy, Human Rights and Labour. The second was to bring Nina Shea, Senior Fellow and Director of the Centre for Religious Freedom at the Hudson Institute, Ryan Brown, Chief Executive Officer of Open Doors US, and Oge Onubogu, Director and Senior Fellow of the Africa Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
According to Smith's office, the session would be his 14th congressional hearing on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. First Daily News reports that it comes one year after Nigeria was redesignated a Country of Particular Concern on October 31, 2025, and that Smith chaired a congressional hearing on the subject on November 20, 2025.
The designation also led to a US-Nigeria Joint Working Group, First Daily News reports. The group held its first meeting in Abuja on January 22, 2026, followed by another round of talks in Washington on August 12. Those discussions addressed religious freedom, counterterrorism cooperation and security challenges. The hearing gives lawmakers a chance to assess Nigeria's progress since the designation and review the impact of that diplomacy.
Lawmakers asking hard questions on the record is one way the persecuted church is kept in view. Proverbs 31:8-9 calls God's people to that same work. Pray for the believers of the Middle Belt, and for those who were set to speak on their behalf.
Read Proverbs 31:8-9
