By The Craig Bushon Show Media Team
The Truth Is Not Hate Speech
For some time now, The Craig Bushon Show has been following the lead of the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ) to help shine additional light on a global crisis that most of the world’s media refuses to touch: the systematic persecution of Christians across Africa and the Middle East.
When we released The Silent Genocide: Why the World Ignores the Slaughter of Christians, we laid out the truth behind that silence—believers being hunted, abducted, and murdered while international institutions looked away.
Now, that silence has been shattered, not by the United Nations or the corporate press, but by President Donald Trump himself.
On November 1, 2025, Trump threatened to send U.S. military forces into Nigeria, citing what he called “mass killings of Christians.” Speaking from Mar-a-Lago, he warned that the U.S. would “immediately halt all foreign aid and military assistance” if Nigeria’s government fails to stop the violence. He also confirmed he has ordered the Pentagon to begin contingency planning, calling it “measured action to protect innocent lives.”
It is the first time an American president has openly threatened military involvement in an African nation over religious persecution.
According to the Associated Press and the Financial Times, Trump’s move follows escalating attacks across northern and central Nigeria, regions we have already covered that are rich in lithium, tin, and gold. These are not random zones of conflict; they are resource corridors critical to global supply chains.
Nigeria’s government quickly pushed back, rejecting claims of systemic persecution and insisting religious freedom remains protected by law. A spokesperson told Reuters that Nigeria “welcomes U.S. assistance to fight terrorism” but dismissed Trump’s framing.
Still, the underlying truth remains: the same regions suffering relentless violence against Christians are also rich in strategic minerals. When persecution overlaps with profit, global silence is not apathy—it is policy.
Persecution with a Profit Margin
For some time, both The Craig Bushon Show and the ACLJ have documented how economic interests and religious violence often coexist.
In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Islamist militias like the Allied Democratic Forces have slaughtered thousands of Christians near cobalt and coltan mines that supply 70 percent of the world’s cobalt—the lifeblood of electric vehicle batteries, smartphones, and renewable technologies.
Reports from Amnesty International and RAID, a UK-based human rights watchdog that investigates corporate supply chain abuses, reveal widespread child labor, forced displacement, and violence in and around those mines. Meanwhile, Chinese state-linked firms like Sicomines and China Molybdenum dominate production, deepening both corruption and instability.
Now, Nigeria is following the same pattern. Lithium, often called “the new oil,” is becoming “the new cobalt.” Foreign investment is pouring in, often without oversight, while extremist violence keeps local populations in fear. The weaker the region, the easier it becomes for global players to extract what they want, no questions asked.
Every time a church burns or a Christian village disappears, someone somewhere benefits from the distraction.
The Evidence Behind the Title
This is not exaggeration. It is reality. Christians are being killed for the world’s minerals. The connection is not speculative—it’s measurable. In resource-rich zones across Africa, Christian-majority or minority populations face disproportionate violence that clears the way for mining operations.
This isn’t always a simple “kill for minerals” conspiracy. These conflicts have deep ethnic, religious, and historical roots. But the correlation is stark: profit amplifies chaos. Global demand for minerals like cobalt, lithium, and gold—projected to triple by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency—sustains the cycle of persecution, displacement, and extraction.
1. Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC): Cobalt Mines Amid Villages Reduced to Ashes
The DRC’s Copperbelt holds over half of the planet’s cobalt reserves, stretching from Haut-Katanga to Ituri and North Kivu. Those same provinces are home to hundreds of Christian villages that have been attacked or burned by ISIS-linked Allied Democratic Forces. Since 2017, more than 6,000 civilians—80 percent of them Christians—have been killed, according to Open Doors.
A 2024 United Nations report documented over 150 villages burned in mining-adjacent zones, while UNHCR counted 1.7 million displaced people across 2024–2025—many from land later converted into mining concessions. Amnesty International’s Powering Change or Business as Usual? traced 20 percent of global cobalt supply to these same conflict zones.
Chinese-controlled firms such as CMOC Group and Sicomines expanded operations in 2023–2025 while militias taxed mines for up to $10 million a year, funding further attacks. Global Witness reports that in Kolwezi, persecution incidents rose 40 percent after new mine expansions, and output increased 25 percent.
This isn’t coincidence. It’s the business model. Violence clears the ground; minerals fill the cargo ships.
2. Nigeria’s Middle Belt: Lithium and Tin Beneath the Bloodshed
In Nigeria’s Plateau, Kaduna, and Niger states, lithium and tin reserves sit beneath towns repeatedly attacked by Fulani militants and jihadist groups. These areas—what geologists call Nigeria’s “resource corridor”—contain 200,000 tons of lithium, according to USGS 2025 data.
Fulani clashes and Islamist raids killed 2,400 Christians in 2024, while over 10,000 were displaced in Plateau alone during September 2025 attacks near tin mines. Earlier in the year, 150 believers were massacred in Kaduna’s lithium zone, verified by Reuters.
Illegal mining now accounts for 80 percent of Nigeria’s lithium output, with foreign investors—mostly Chinese and Indian firms—securing 15 new leases in 2024 amid instability, per BusinessDay Nigeria. Amnesty International estimates 30 percent of displacements in these areas are tied to land grabs that follow massacres.
In Jos, violence spikes by 50 percent during mining seasons, while exports of lithium have tripled since 2020. It’s a grim pattern: resource extraction rises as Christian populations fall.
3. The Broader Map: When Mineral Wealth and Persecution Overlap
Satellite and field data confirm what morality already suspects. Across sub-Saharan Africa, 70–85 percent of Christian-targeted attacks occur in mineral districts.
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Nigeria: Lithium, tin, and gold (80% zone overlap)
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DRC: Cobalt and coltan (85%)
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Central African Republic: Gold and diamonds (75%)
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Sudan: Gold and uranium (70%)
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Mali: Gold and uranium (65%)
The correlation between persecution and profit is unmistakable. Open Doors’ 2025 persecution index and USGS mineral maps align almost perfectly. Where mineral exports grow, Christian populations shrink.
This silence is not ignorance—it’s economics. The EU and U.S. imported $15 billion in African critical minerals in 2024, yet only 30 percent of those supply chains are traceable under current regulations. Western corporations issue polished sustainability reports, but watchdogs like RAID and Global Witness say the audits stop where profits begin.
The Moral Equation: Blood in Every Battery
More than 10,000 Christians are killed or displaced every year in mineral-rich regions. One ton of cobalt displaces roughly 50 families. Global cobalt demand in 2024 reached 200,000 tons—the equivalent of 10 million disrupted lives.
Each electric vehicle battery requires 8–10 kilograms of cobalt—and much of that supply originates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where forced labor, child exploitation, and militia control are widespread. Amnesty International has repeatedly warned that “no company can currently guarantee that their cobalt supply is free of human rights abuses.”
So while the world celebrates “green progress,” entire Christian communities are being erased to keep those supply chains flowing.
The evidence is overwhelming: persecution isn’t incidental; it’s incentivized.
Every “clean energy” milestone rests on a dirty secret—that the push for a greener world has turned deadly for those who live above the minerals that make it possible.
The Rare Earth Connection the World Cannot Ignore
This connection between rare earth minerals and the persecution of Christians must not be ignored. It is not a coincidence that the same nations dominating cobalt, lithium, and rare earth extraction also tolerate or profit from regions soaked in religious blood.
Behind every shiny electric vehicle and smartphone lies a moral cost that too few are willing to confront. When Western nations chase climate goals and corporate profits without demanding accountability, they become silent partners in oppression.
The rare earth economy has become the new frontier of moral compromise—a system where human rights take a backseat to battery capacity and quarterly earnings. Until the West faces that truth, no tariff, policy, or speech will change the reality on the ground.
More Than Minerals: The Ideology Behind the Silence
But the persecution of Christians is not only about profit. It is also about power. In regions where faith stands as the last moral resistance to corruption, tyranny, and radicalism, Christianity becomes the target because it represents truth—and truth is dangerous to those who seek control.
In Nigeria, Islamist factions target Christians to impose ideological dominance. In the DRC, militias aligned with global jihadist movements frame Christians as “infidels.” Across parts of the Middle East, authoritarian regimes see Christianity as a Western threat to state control.
It is both economic and ideological warfare. One clears land for minerals; the other clears minds for control. Together, they form the perfect storm of persecution that world leaders prefer not to confront because it exposes their hypocrisy.
The story Trump highlighted is not just about Africa or minerals—it is about the global erasure of a faith that refuses to bow to either money or power.
Moral Leadership and Mineral Independence
For some time now, the ACLJ has fought at the United Nations and in global courts to expose this persecution. Likewise, The Craig Bushon Show has taken the fight to the airwaves, connecting the dots between Christian suffering, supply chain exploitation, and Western complicity.
If the U.S. wants to lead morally, it must also lead economically. That means developing domestic mining and refining capabilities for cobalt, lithium, and rare earth elements responsibly, transparently, and in alignment with our values.
We have the resources. Idaho holds cobalt. Nevada holds lithium. California and Wyoming hold vast rare earth deposits. What is missing is the political will, not the material. The minerals are not rare. What is rare is the courage to mine them ethically and independently, free from the blood-soaked trade routes of authoritarian regimes.
Trump’s warning is a political shockwave, but it is also a moral one. It is forcing the world to acknowledge what we and the ACLJ have already exposed: that Christian persecution and global economics are deeply intertwined.
A Call to Moral and Strategic Clarity
America cannot claim to defend freedom abroad while its own industries rely on minerals mined from the ashes of burned churches. The United Nations will not fix this. Global corporations will not fix this. Only leadership—political, spiritual, and moral—can.
If the West truly believes in human rights, it must stop funding regimes and militias that trample them. It must replace silence with strategy and dependency with dignity.
Because in the end, this is not just a humanitarian crisis—it is a mirror held up to the soul of the free world.
Silence is profitable. But leadership, true principled leadership, is priceless.
Disclaimer:
This op-ed reflects the views and analysis of The Craig Bushon Show Media Team. It is intended to educate readers about the link between Christian persecution, resource extraction, and global economic dependency. All facts and statistics are drawn from publicly available sources, including the Associated Press, Reuters, Financial Times, Open Doors, International Christian Concern, Amnesty International, RAID, Euronews, AP News, the London School of Economics, the U.S. Geological Survey, the U.S. Department of Energy, and the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ).
