Meanwhile, advocates like Saul say the crisis cannot wait for geopolitical negotiations. He argues that international pressure must intensify immediately, before more villages are burned and more families displaced.
International Stakes and China's Influence
One complicating factor, though, is China's expanding presence on the African continent. China is Nigeria's largest bilateral lender and a key investor in infrastructure, energy, and mining, and it benefits from the status quo. Cruz believes that economic relationship gives the United States further geopolitical incentive to put pressure on Nigerian officials to stop the violence.
"Communist China is the single largest geopolitical threat facing the United States for the next hundred years," Cruz said.
"Their objective is unequivocal. They're not shy about it. It is global domination. It is economic domination. It is military domination. And Africa is one of the major battlegrounds where China is trying to exert its influence."
According to Cruz, China benefits from a weakened or destabilized Nigeria because radical Islamist factions tend to resent Western influence more than Chinese investment.
"Chinese communists are perfectly fine with persecuting Christians," he said.
"The Chinese communist government persecutes Christians in China. They also recognize that the more influence radical Islamists have in Nigeria, the less likely Nigeria is to align with America because radical Islam hates America. And so, from China's perspective, if they want Nigeria to side with the communists, one of the ways of doing so is trying to strengthen the forces that hate Americans, that hate Christians, that hate the West. And sadly, that's exactly what China is doing."
For Cruz, Waltz, and scores of humanitarian workers, the moment to stake a clear position on Nigerian persecution feels long overdue. And for the families living through nightly attacks, fleeing burned homes, or burying loved ones in village clearings, it is simply another chapter in a long struggle for survival - one they hope the world, finally, has begun to see.
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