Congressman Riley Moore led a five-member U.S. congressional delegation to Nigeria to investigate alleged genocide against Christians in Benue State and will brief President Trump by month’s end with recommendations for coordinated action with the Nigerian government.
I just returned from a Congressional delegation to Nigeria with @HouseAppropsGOP. While there, we visited Benue State.
We met with Bishops Anagbe and Dugu and Tor Tiv. We met with suffering IDPs who are all Christians. They are forced to live in camps that are regularly… pic.twitter.com/pMRpYhNMWW
— Rep. Riley M. Moore (@RepRileyMoore) December 11, 2025
Congressman Riley Moore has returned from a deeply impactful congressional delegation to Nigeria, where he and fellow House Appropriations Committee members conducted a fact-finding mission focused on allegations of systematic violence against Christian communities. The visit, which concluded recently, has left Moore profoundly affected and determined to bring the crisis to President Donald Trump’s immediate attention.
The five-member delegation spent several days in Nigeria, with particular focus on Benue State in the country’s Middle Belt region. Their itinerary included meetings with Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), survivors of terrorist attacks, Christian community leaders including Bishops Anagbe and Dugu, and traditional rulers such as the Tor Tiv. The team also held high-level discussions with Nigerian government officials, including National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu and Attorney General Lateef Fagbemi.
What Moore witnessed has clearly shaken him to his core. Speaking on social media and later appearing on Fox News with anchor Harris Faulkner, the Congressman described encounters that will, in his words, stay with him “the rest of my life.”
“It was really shocking — the stories we heard, the imagery. I have never witnessed anything like that in my life,” Moore said during his Fox News interview. The delegation heard countless testimonies from survivors, but some stories stood out for their sheer brutality. Moore recounted meeting a woman who endured unimaginable tragedy: “I met one woman who lost her entire family. Five of her children were murdered right in front of her while she was pregnant. She escaped and delivered her baby in an IDP camp. You can see that her soul has literally left her body. There are countless stories like these.”
In his Twitter statement, Moore wrote about this same encounter: “We heard heartbreaking stories from survivors of this horrific genocidal campaign committed by the Fulani, including a woman who was forced to watch as five of her children were killed.”
The delegation also learned of another woman who lost her husband, two daughters, and her unborn child during an attack. According to Moore, the pattern of violence suggests Christian communities are being deliberately targeted by Fulani Islamic radicals who regularly attack even the supposed safety of IDP camps.
The severity of the security situation was evident in the delegation’s travel arrangements. Moore revealed that the team traveled across Benue State in armoured vehicles, underscoring the real and present danger faced by residents daily. “This is a fact finding mission. Benue is one of the most dangerous states in Nigeria. This is where the majority of Christians are being murdered for their faith in our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. But I felt we had to go,” he explained.
Moore directly challenged alternative explanations for the violence, particularly those attributing it to climate change or economic disputes over land and resources. “For those who say this is about climate change or economics, why would you burn down a church? Why would you attack an IDP camp screaming ‘Allahu Akbar’? It is very clear what the answer is,” he said. “They are trying to erase Christians in Benue State and across Nigeria from their ancestral homeland.”
Now back on U.S. soil, Moore and House Appropriations Chairman Tom Cole are working urgently to compile a comprehensive report for President Trump. The report will outline what Moore describes as “a path forward to work with the Nigerian government in a coordinated and cooperative manner to end the slaughter of innocent Christians in the Middle Belt and stop the ongoing terrorist threat in the Northeast.”
As Moore stated: “We will report back to the President and make recommendations. He has asked myself and Chairman Tom Cole to give him a report, and we are going to do that by the end of this month.”
This mission comes in the context of President Trump’s October designation of Nigeria as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’ over alleged Christian genocide—a characterization the Nigerian Federal Government has disputed, maintaining that the country’s security challenges are not religiously motivated.
The upcoming briefing promises to be consequential, potentially shaping U.S. policy toward Nigeria and determining how America might assist in addressing what Moore and his colleagues witnessed firsthand. As the Congressman concluded in his tweet: “We will brief the President soon. More to come.”