Nigeria: thousands of unprotected civilians killed by Boko Haram

Advancing terror

More than 2,000 people are reported to have been killed; more have been injured or abducted over the last few days, in the Nigerian town of Baga, near the border with Chad. On Saturday, Nigerian military units were battling Boko Haram militants who carried out the massacre earlier in the week.

Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama, the archbishop of Jos and President of the Nigerian Bishops Conference, told Vatican Radio the numbers of people killed cannot yet be confirmed, but the civilian population is bearing the brunt of the conflict in the northeast of the country.

“The civilians suffer more, because they have no protection, and I can imagine now that the villages that are said to have been attacked, and their populations, are totally destabilized,” said Archbishop Kaigama.

He said the Nigerian government has so far not been able to defeat the Boko Haram insurgency, and the Islamic militant group is expanding its reach.

Boko Haram has captured a number of local government office. Archbishop Kaigama said: “Villages and towns have fallen under their control, and they declare they have established an Islamic caliphate… They are even expanding to neighbouring countries - like Cameroon and Niger and Chad and so on - which means they are making progress in their own way."

The Archbishop appealed for prayers. he said the situation has gone beyond what “can be managed at the human level.”

Source: Fides/BBC