United States Senator Ted Cruz has declared that Washington has identified Nigerian government officials responsible for creating conditions that enable the killing of Christians in the country and possesses the means to sanction them.
Cruz made the warning on Tuesday via his X account, responding to Sunday’s deadly attack on the Angwan Rukuba community in Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State, which fell on Palm Sunday and claimed at least 12 lives.
“Nigerian government officials have created an environment in which Christians are routinely persecuted and slaughtered, by imposing sharia law and looking the other way at violence.
“Those officials should know that the U.S. knows who they are, and has the tools to hold them accountable,” the Texas senator wrote.
The Plateau State Police Command had confirmed that gunmen struck Angwan Rukuba at around 8:30 p.m. on March 29.
Plateau Governor Caleb Mutfwang, in a state broadcast on Tuesday, confirmed the death toll of 28, describing the victims as “law-abiding citizens going about their normal activities when the enemies of peace unleashed this senseless attack at about 7:30pm.”
He said a suspect who had earlier issued threats against the peace of the state had been apprehended, and vowed that all those involved in the attack would be prosecuted.
This time, we shall pursue the cause of justice to its logical conclusion to ensure closure for the victims, their families, and, most importantly, the generality of the peace-loving people of Plateau State,” he said.
Mutfwang also announced that the state government would cover the medical expenses of all those injured and engage closely with families of the deceased to ensure dignified burials.
He convened a State Security Council meeting to review the state’s security architecture and directed security agencies to strictly enforce the ban on commercial motorcycles within the Jos Greater Master Plan.
The attack also drew criticism from an American humanitarian, Alex Barbir, leader of the Building Zion missionary group, who in a widely circulated video on X directly challenged President Bola Tinubu over what he described as serial government inaction.
“They just murdered over 10 people. Innocent Christians on Palm Sunday. Tinubu, where are you as your people are slaughtered in the night?” Barbir said while speaking from Plateau State.
As you sit in Aso Rock and you do absolutely nothing. You allow your people to be killed again and again and again and again. When will it stop?” he added.
Barbir is known for rebuilding homes for attack survivors in Benue State and other conflict-hit communities across the country’s Middle Belt region.
On the domestic front, Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang visited the bereaved community and vowed that perpetrators would face justice.
“Your pain is my pain, and the pain of Plateau State. My administration will pursue justice relentlessly until the perpetrators are brought to book,” he said in a post on X.
Mutfwang also announced that the state government would cover medical bills for all those injured and ensure a dignified burial for those killed.
A 48-hour curfew was subsequently imposed on Jos North LGA, running from midnight on March 29 through April 1, 2026, with additional security personnel deployed to restore order.
Sunday’s attack on Angwan Rukuba is the latest flashpoint in a diplomatic row between Washington and Abuja over the treatment of Christians in Nigeria.
In October 2025, US President Donald Trump designated Nigeria a “Country of Particular Concern,” citing alleged threats against Christian communities and warning that Washington could halt all assistance to the country and consider military action against what he described as Islamic terrorist groups if the killings continued.
The Federal Government rejected the claim, calling it inconsistent with facts, and dispatched a delegation led by the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, to Washington to engage US congressmen.
It also convened a briefing for the diplomatic corps in Abuja, at which the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dunoma Ahmed, said in November 2025 that Nigeria’s national legal framework contained no offence of blasphemy, that existing public-order laws were religion-neutral, and that Sharia laws operative in some northern states applied only to Muslims under the oversight of the secular judiciary.
Tinubu followed up in December 2025, dismissing the persecution narrative as both false and harmful.
“There is no Christian genocide in Nigeria, and there is no Muslim genocide in Nigeria. What we have is terrorism driven by criminality and extremism — challenges we are working tirelessly to overcome,” he said.
By: Fawzi Kehinde
