Nigeria: Almost All the Churches of the Diocese of Maiduguri Have Been Destroyed

The Muslim group Boko Haram has destroyed 50 to 52 churches of the Catholic diocese of Maiduguri, in northern Nigeria. According to Fr. Jérôme Ituah, of the parish of Abuja (administrative capitol), when questioned by the English Catholic weekly The Tablet on March 21, 2013, “you can see Catholics assisting at Mass in the rain or under the hot sun, on the site of the destroyed church.”

For John Pontifex, the United Kingdom’s head of the Catholic work of mutual aid Help to the Church in Distress (AED), quoted in the same article, such a vast destruction shows “Boko Haram’s motivation to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country.”

The violence attributed to this group and its repression by the police have been the cause of over 3,000 deaths since 2009. The group’s objective is the creation of an Islamic state in northern Nigeria.

Nigeria, the most densely populated country in Africa, with 160 million inhabitants, is the continent’s primary producer of petroleum. It is divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.

(sources: apic/The Tablet – DICI#273, April 12, 2013)

You can also read :
Nigeria : Ten Christians slaughtered
Nigeria: New attack on a Catholic church
Nigeria: Dialogue to Fight against Terrorism
Nigeria: start of “ethnic and religious cleansing”