If you are in the US, please consider using this template (or ideas from it) to write to your Senators and Representative. Thank you
Dear (NAME)
Topic: Problems with H.R. 7457 and the Foreign Affairs Committee report "Ending the Persecution of Christians in Nigeria"
I am writing to express concern about portions of H.R. 7457, introduced by Chris Smith, particularly Section 2 and Section 3(7), which singles out the Fulani ethnic group and the MACBAN organization for violence against Christians in Nigeria. The Foreign Affairs Committee report "Ending the Persecution of Christians in Nigeria" also has language that would encourage ethnic cleansing of Fulani herders, who are a vulnerable group with fewer civil rights under the Nigerian classification of people as either ”indigenes” or ”settlers.”
The atrocities committed by extremist groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State are real and devastating. Millions have been displaced, and both Christians and Muslims have suffered. U.S. support for counterterrorism efforts in northern Nigeria and humanitarian aid for displaced communities is appropriate and necessary.
However, violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt is complex and rooted largely in longstanding land and resource conflicts between herders and farmers. Multiple ethnic groups — including both Fulani and predominantly Christian farming communities — have armed factions, and all sides have suffered casualties. Singling out one ethnic group in U.S. legislation oversimplifies a complicated conflict and risks unintended consequences including deepening divisions and ineffective actions. The oversimplification has resulted in a recommendation in the bill to declare the “Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria” (MACBAN) a terrorist organization simply based on the organization’s peaceful and legal advocacy for nomadic herders, largely Fulani, since the 1970s. The bill deliberately mischaracterizes a land resource dispute as a religious conflict to help anti-Fulani political activists in Nigeria gain support in the US legislature and to unfairly apply US pressure to one side of a complex land use dispute.
The most problematic statements in "Ending the Persecution of Christians in Nigeria" are:
"Remove Fulani militias from confiscated, productive farmland."
Farming groups such as the Tiv in the Middle belt of Nigeria have been asking the government to remove Fulani herders and make pasture into farmland since 2014. Militias of Christian-majority groups are shooting and poisoning cows and killing herders in the Middle Belt, and Muslim Hausa farmers kill Fulani herders in the north. This discrimination against Fulani has been well documented. Now that Congressman Moore visited a Tiv location where a massacre was committed by Fulani, he has met with Tiv who convinced him of the narrative that Fulani need to be removed.
"Eliminate violence by armed Fulani militias, including by developing a demobilization, disarmament program...while allowing farmers to engage in legitimate self-defense."
This statement clearly ignores the fact that Christian militias have been killing herders, burning Fulani villages, and poisoning cattle. Each side thinks that they are doing legitimate self-defense and the other side is the aggressor. What is needed instead of saying just one side should disarm, is to support robust peacebuilding programs. There are areas in the Middle Belt where Fulani and farmers are living in peace because of hard work by local leaders. These areas were not visited by the Congressman and were not represented in the Committee hearings.
I respectfully urge you to support counterterrorism, humanitarian relief, and peacebuilding initiatives in Nigeria, while avoiding language in H.R. 7457 that assigns collective blame to the Fulani ethnic community. I also urge you to remove the recommendation that the peaceful and legal MACBAN organization be classified as a terrorist organization.
Thank you for your consideration.
(YOUR NAME)