The World Council of Churches (WCC) has issued a statement
expressing shock over the latest and perhaps most violent attacks by the
extremist insurgent group Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria. The
attacks on the Nigerian town of Baga and several surrounding villages
along the shore of Lake Chad murdered of hundreds of people, according
to some reports up to 2,000 people. The Baga area is not in the
“heartland” of Ekklesiyar Yan’uwa a Nigeria (EYN, the Church of the
Brethren in Nigeria) and EYN leaders have not reported that Nigerian
Brethren were among those who lost their lives or were displaced by the
attacks. It is reported that thousands of Nigerians fled over the border
to Chad following the attacks.
The WCC statement follows:
The latest violent attacks and killings in northern Nigeria demand
the full attention and engagement of the government of Nigeria, and the
active solidarity of the international community. The World Council of
Churches is shocked by the unprecedented scale and brutality of the
reported attacks by the extremist group Boko Haram in Baga--where more
than 2,000 people are thought to have been killed--and in Maiduguri and
Potiskum--where children as young as 10 are said to have been used in
suicide bomb attacks. 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.
The WCC calls on the Nigerian
government to respond meaningfully to these attacks and to ensure by all
reasonable means the protection of the people of northern Nigeria from
further such atrocities. Election campaign commitments are superseded by
this first and most fundamental responsibility.
The WCC joins
with the Nigerian religious leaders who have called for the
international community’s solidarity and engagement, and in expressing
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.
Faced with these realities, the WCC is
seeking to make a positive contribution to the situation in Nigeria.
Following on a joint high level Christian-Muslim visit to Nigeria in May
2012, co-led by Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit [the WCC general secretary] and
HRH Prince Ghazi of Jordan of the Royal Jordanian Aal Al-Bayt Institute
(RABIIT), the WCC and RABIIT have been working together to establish a
center to monitor incidents of religiously based violence and to work to
promote interreligious harmony, justice, and peace. We are also working
in partnership with local Christian and Muslim partners, including the
Christian Council of Nigeria. It is hoped that the center, to be based
in Abuja, will open during the first half of 2015.
Source: 01/14/2015 Newsline
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