The ongoing and intensifying slaughter of Christians and others in Nigeria is intolerable. I urge you to designate immediately a Special Envoy for Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region to coordinate and implement an effective U.S. government response to this crisis. As you know, all of Nigeria’s Christians – who make up roughly half of the country’s population of 200 million, but most especially those in the northern and central regions of the country, are under threat. In recent years, entire Christian villages have been wiped out by jihadists of Boko Haram and the Fulani. For much of this time, the U.S. government has exhibited, at best, a willful blindness towards the deliberate targeting of Nigeria’s Christian population by both Boko Haram and the Fulani. At worst, it has treated such attacks with moral equivalence as simply “clashes between Muslims and Christians.” But the 15,000 Christians killed in Nigeria and the 900-plus churches torched there over the past few years tell a very different story. Such horrors are the direct result of unprovoked attacks designed, in the words of Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Boko Haram, to render the north of Nigeria “free of Christians” and “ruled by Sharia.” As the Christian Association of Nigeria put it last summer in response to portrayals of such attacks as “clashes” between farmer and herdsmen: How can it be a “clash” when one group is persistently attacking, killing, maiming, destroying and the other group is persistently being killed, maimed and their places of worship destroyed? How can it be a clash when the herdsmen are hunting farmers in their own villages/communities and farmers are running for their lives? According to the Global Terrorism Index issued by the Institute for Economics and Peace, in 2018, Nigeria once again has the dubious distinction of being the world’s third most terrorism-impacted nation. And, as is often the case when one nation is wracked by terrorism, the repercussions extend far beyond its own borders. For example: • In the Lake Chad Region, there are estimated to be 2.2 million refugees displaced by the violence in Nigeria that is now impacting Cameroon, Chad and Niger, as well. • The attacks that killed American military personnel in Niger in February, 2018 were the result of al-Qaeda operatives indoctrinating members of Nigeria’s Fulani ethnic group. Today, a large majority of the Fulani cattle-herders have been radicalized and have, along with Boko Haram, been supported and provided with weapons by those seeking the complete Islamization of Nigeria. • The U.S. government's Famine Early Warning System has warned that Nigeria constitutes one of the planet’s largest food insecurity crises. In addition to the millions of Nigerians experiencing a food emergency, the people of Chad and Niger are facing a similar disaster. • In 2017, more Nigerians than any other nationality crossed the Mediterranean illegally to Europe. An estimated 10,000 Nigerian women and girls are victims of human trafficking in Italy alone. If the anti-Christian violence in Nigeria results in the implosion of that nation of 200 million, it is certain that the refugee flows that have rocked the European continent to date will pale by comparison. Consequently, it is absolutely imperative that the United States address the escalating crisis in Nigeria and the Lake Chad region. To do so, every element of our government must be aligned and engaged, including notably: the National Security Council, the Departments of State and Defense, U.S. AID, the International Religious Freedom Commission, the U.S. United Nations mission and our intelligence community. A proven model for accomplishing the needed interagency harmonization and effective representation in such a crisis was the role played by former Senator John Danforth as a Special Envoy for Sudan during the Bush Administration. Amb. Danforth’s stature, skills and mandate enabled him to forge unified and sound policies internally – and to advance them effectively with a Sudanese government waging genocidal war against Christians and others in its southern regions. We respectfully urge that you appoint at once a Special Envoy of comparable stature and ability to address the present crisis in Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region. This individual must command the respect and cooperation of all the relevant U.S. agencies. He or she must also enjoy the confidence of the victims of the violence and resist the tendency, in the interest of diplomacy, to treat them and their persecutors as equally culpable for the bloodshed. Thank your for your prompt consideration of this extremely urgent request.