Rapper Nicki Minaj urged the UN on Tuesday to confront what she called escalating attacks on churches and Christian communities in Nigeria, saying the violence should “shake" the world body into action.
Speaking at the US mission to the UN, alongside ambassador Mike Waltz, Minaj said assaults on places of worship and the displacement of Christian families showed a deepening crisis that global leaders have been too slow to address.
“When one’s church, a place of worship, is destroyed, everyone’s heart should break,” she said. “And the foundation of the United Nations, with its core mandate to ensure peace and security, should shake.”
Nigeria, a nation of more than 235 million people and about 200 ethnic groups, is split between a mainly Muslim north and a largely Christian south.
For more than 15 years, Islamist insurgent groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province have terrorised communities in the north-east, killing thousands.
Minaj, known for hits including Starships, Super Bass and Barbie Dreams, has recently used her platform to highlight religious violence.
She said Christians in Nigeria were being “targeted, driven from their homes and killed”, with churches burnt and families “torn apart”. Entire communities were living in fear “simply because of how they pray".
Minaj framed the issue not as sectarian but as universal, insisting she was not seeking to take sides in Nigeria’s complex security situation.
“Protecting Christians in Nigeria is not about taking sides or dividing people,” she said. “It is about uniting humanity … This is about standing up in the face of injustice. It’s about what I’ve always stood for.”
The rapper thanked US President Donald Trump for “prioritising this issue and for his leadership on the global stage in calling for urgent action to defend Christians in Nigeria”.
Her remarks come days after Mr Trump redesignated Nigeria as a "Country of Particular Concern" – a classification that can enable sanctions – citing what the administration called years of mass killings by Islamist militant groups and armed herders.
US officials claim more than 20,000 churches have been destroyed and thousands killed since 2009.
Nigeria denied the violence amounts to persecution, saying insecurity affects both Christian and Muslim communities.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu accused Washington of misrepresenting the country, calling Nigeria “a democracy with constitutional guarantees of religious liberty".
This month, however, an adviser said that Nigeria would welcome assistance from the US to combat Islamist militants, provided Washington respects its territorial integrity.
Minaj repeated her gratitude for living in a country where people “can freely and safely worship God”, adding that no group should face persecution for its beliefs.
Her participation followed her endorsement of a Trump post on Truth Social accusing Nigeria’s government of failing to protect Christian communities.
“Thank you to the President and his team for taking this seriously,” she wrote on social media.
Mr Trump’s move followed increased lobbying from conservative Christian groups urging him to escalate pressure on Abuja.
He even raised the prospect of military action, warning US troops could be sent “guns a-blazing” to defend Christian communities.
