A fresh bill in the United States House of Representatives has proposed that the country’s Secretary of State work with the Nigerian government to thwart the “hostile foreign exploitation of Chinese illegal mining operations.”
The proposed legislation, titled Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026, was introduced by five Republican lawmakers on Tuesday.
The congressmen who sponsored the bill are Chris Smith, Riley Moore (the bill’s author), Brian Mast, Mario Diaz-Balart, and Bill Huizenga.
The bill’s sponsors alleged that illegal Chinese mining operations in Nigeria engage in the “destabilizing practice of paying protection money to Fulani militias.”
The legislation also proposes that the US Secretary of State consider providing “technical support to the Government of Nigeria to reduce and then eliminate violence from armed Fulani militias.”
Clauses 10 and 11 of the proposed legislation read as follows:
“The Secretary of State should consider technical support to the Government of Nigeria to reduce and then eliminate violence from armed Fulani militias, including disarmament programs and comprehensive counter-terrorism cooperation to rid the region of Foreign Terrorist Organizations that pose a direct threat to the American homeland;
The Secretary of State should work with the Government of Nigeria to counteract the hostile foreign exploitation of Chinese illegal mining operations and their destabilizing practice of paying protection money to Fulani militias.”
The bill also stipulates that the US Department of State enlist international partners such as France, Hungary, and the United Kingdom to collaborate with the Nigerian government in promoting religious freedom and peace.
The Secretary of State is expected to determine whether certain “Fulani-ethnic militias” in Nigeria qualify as “Foreign Terrorist Organizations.”
In April 2023, a report published by The Times, a British national daily, stated that Chinese nationals in the mining sector were funding terrorist groups in parts of Nigeria to secure access to the country’s mineral reserves.
The report alleged that, through bribes and illegal transactions, “Beijing could be indirectly funding terror in Africa’s largest economy.”
It further detailed that some Chinese nationals who worked informally as miners in Zamfara allegedly served as runners for militant groups in the state and across the north-west region of the country.
