Nigerian churches criticised for not helping persecuted north

Baroness Cox: there's 'a disconnect at every level' between southern and northern Nigerian churches

Christians in the south of Nigeria are failing to help their persecuted compatriots in the north, according to a veteran humanitarian campaigner.

British peer, Baroness Caroline Cox, who has made numerous aid missions to the country, including a recent trip, told World Watch Monitor: “My personal view is that many of those churches are immensely wealthy and I would hope they could do more to help those who are suffering in the north, particularly the internally displaced people who are left.”

“They could work with churches [in the north] who know the needs to reach those most in need.

“From a Christian point of view, St Paul said that where one part of the Body of Christ suffers, we all suffer. There is an obligation to help our Christian brothers and sisters.”

The seven-year Islamist rebellion has left 20,000 people dead and about 2.6 million displaced across the four countries. Many families have been displaced several times.

Lady Cox said that southern churches sent occasional consignments of aid, but a tribal rather than national outlook often prevailed resulting in a “disconnect at every level” between Christians in the north and those in the south.

Church leaders in northern Nigeria have previously told World Watch Monitor that they do not have the resources to care for the children orphaned by Islamist militia attacks.

Lady Cox also voiced concern that the Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari is failing to adequately respond to the increasingly frequent attacks by groups of armed Fulani herdsmen on Christian villages and leaders in the country’s Middle Belt. She suggested that the lack of “robust reprisals” could be linked to him being Fulani. 

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https://www.worldwatchmonitor.org/2016/12/4788824/