DAVID ADAMS reports…
The World Council of Churches has expressed its shock at the “unprecedented scale and brutality” of recent reported attacks by Islamic extremist group Boko Haram in northern Nigeria.
It has been claimed up to 2000 people were killed when Boko Haram attacked the north-eastern town of Baga, near the border with Chad, and surrounding communities on 3rd January, although the Nigerian military have reportedly put the death toll as low as 150, dismissing the higher figures as “speculations and conjectures”. As many as 30,000 people have reportedly fled the towns following the violence.
The attack on Baga was followed by suicide bombings in the towns of Maiduguri and Potiskum which are believed to have involved girls as young as 10-years-old and which killed more than 20 people.
In a statement issued this week, the WCC said the latest attacks “demand the full attention and engagement of the government of Nigeria and the active solidarity of the international community”.
“As much as the WCC joins in the international solidarity with the people of France in the aftermath of the recent attacks in and near Paris, we are deeply saddened that the tragic events in Nigeria have not attracted equivalent international concern and solidarity”.
– WCC statement
“A mindset which deploys young children as bombs and which indiscriminately slaughters women, children and elderly people is beyond outrage, and disqualifies itself from any possible claim to religious justification,” said the statement issued on Monday.
The WCC called on the Nigerian Government to “respond meaningfully” to the attacks and protect the people of northern Nigeria from further atrocities, noting, in reference to the current election campaign, that campaign commitments “are superseded by this first and most fundamental responsibility”.
It also expressed “deep disappointment at the relative – even discriminatory – lack of international media coverage”. “As much as the WCC joins in the international solidarity with the people of France in the aftermath of the recent attacks in and near Paris, we are deeply saddened that the tragic events in Nigeria have not attracted equivalent international concern and solidarity”.
Meanwhile, persecuted church advocates, Release International, has warned that the world “must open our eyes to the religious cleansing aspect of the violence” taking place in Nigeria.
Paul Robinson, chief executive of the UK-based group, said many Christians had reportedly been driven out of the north of the country by Boko Haram.
“While all Nigerians are at risk from violent jihadists, Christians are being singled out as targets,” he said. “Release is urging Nigeria to act decisively to safeguard the lives of its dwindling Christian minority in the north.”
As estimated 10,000 people have been killed since Boko Haram, a nickname which means “Western education is forbidden”, started an insurgency in 2009.
Meanwhile, the WCC and the Royal Jordanian Aal Al-Bayt Institute have announced they are jointly establishing a centre to monitor incidents of religiously motivated violence and to work to promote inter-religious harmony, justice and peace in Abuja, Nigeria. It is hoped the new centre will be open in the first half of this year.
