September 16, 2016

Bishops challenge president to protect Christians in northern Nigeria

Saying that Christians face a "hurricane of violence" in northern Nigeria, the country's Catholic bishops have appealled to President Muhmmadu Buhari to renounce "sectionalism" and ensure security for all of the nation's people.

Violence against the Christian minority has become commonplace in northern Nigeria, where the population is mostly Muslim. (The population of the south is mostly Christian or animist.) The Catholic bishops, who had welcomed Buhari's election as a sign that the country "wanted to turn a new page," expressed dismay that "political violence, corruption, kidnappings, armed robbery, ritual murders and all ills of the past, are still very much present." 

"Christians suffer disproportionate violence from Muslim extremists for reasons that very often have nothing to do with the Christian community," Bishop Matthew Kukah of Sokoto told the Catholic News Agency. He said that northern Nigeria is threatened with "an almost total breakdown of trust."