ABUJA, Nigeria (AFP)—The United States said Nigeria “must do more to protect Christians” following a mass kidnapping across several churches in Kaduna state, as a high-level security meeting kicked off in Abuja Thursday.

But in a speech, a senior State Department official leading the US delegation omitted any mention of Muslim victims of violence in Africa’s most populous country.

The remarks come as Abuja has been under diplomatic pressure by Washington over violence that US President Donald Trump says amounts to “genocide” and “persecution” of Christians.

That framing is rejected by the Nigerian government and independent analysts in the country, which faces overlapping security challenges that kill both Muslim and Christian civilians alike.

“The government of Nigeria must do more to protect Christians and their right to practise their faith freely and safely,” said Allison Hooker, State Department under secretary for political affairs, referencing the kidnapping of more than 170 people from several churches.

Hooker is the highest US government official to visit Nigeria under the Trump administration.

The attack in Kaduna state Sunday was the latest mass abduction to rock the country, blamed on armed gangs known as “bandits”.

Further controversy was stirred after police initially denied that the attack happened.

Villagers who survived the kidnapping or escaped recounted the attack.

The kidnappers “surrounded the village entirely. If you run to one side they’ll be there, if you run to another, they’ll be there,” Ishaku Danzumi Kurmin, who escaped, told AFP.

“They beat us and took us to the bush,” where they found a bandits leader. “They beat us again,” he said, adding he hid in a water well and later escaped.

For Alice Joseph, 42, whose parents were seized, kidnapping is commonplace.

“For the past four years, every year they come,” she said recalling that her husband and children, were previously kidnapped.

“And now this year my parents are among those kidnapped,” including her brother, she said, sobbing, arms wrapped on her head, in despair. “I now have no solace but God.”

A blue plastic chair and music instruments lay on the floor of the one of the churches when the state governor visited the area on Wednesday — four days after the raid.

According to an official source, 68 children and 56 women are among those in captivity.

– Muslim victims not mentioned –

Nigeria has emerged from the worst of the US pressure campaign, with Trump last year threatening unilateral military intervention.

But Hooker’s focus on Christian victims shows Abuja will have to continue to grapple with Washington’s agenda as the two countries advance security cooperation following joint strikes on militants late last year.

“We are here to discuss how we can work together to deter violence against Christian communities,” Hooker told the Nigerian delegation, according to prepared remarks.

Other US priorities include “countering terrorism and insecurity; investigating attacks and holding perpetrators accountable; and reducing the number of killings, forced displacements, and abductions of Christians in the north central states”.

Muslim victims of armed groups were not mentioned.

Nigeria is battling a slew of armed groups.

Bandit gangs raid villages and conduct kidnappings for ransom across the northwest, while a jihadist insurgency in the northeast has raged since 2009, killing both Christians and Muslims.

The centre of the country sees clashes between mostly Christian farmers and Muslim Fulani herders, though researchers say the conflict flares over dwindling resources rather than religion.

As Nigeria came under US pressure late last year, a brazen kidnapping at St. Mary’s Catholic school in Niger state saw more than 250 students abducted.

Hooker Thursday falsely said all the victims of the St. Mary’s kidnapping were Christian.

“On the protection of Christians, the Nigerian government recently secured the release of 38 Christians abducted from a church in Kwara state, and another 265 abducted from St. Mary’s Catholic school,” she said.

The school includes students who are Muslims, some of whom were kidnapped.

“We have Muslims amongst them,” Daniel Atori, a spokesman for the Christian Association of Nigeria in Niger state, told AFP Thursday.