(January 10, 2012) Thirty more people died in Nigeria over the weekend, the latest
victims in a wave of anti-Christian violence that claimed more than three dozen lives
on Christmas Day. Kyrke-Smith the U.K. director for the charity group ‘Aid to the
Church in Need’ has added his voice in condemning the violence. His remarks came after
last weekend's episode of violence in which 30 people died in anti-Christian attacks
in Adamawa State, in the northeast. Previously there were five separate bomb attacks
across Nigeria on Christmas Day, killing at least 40 people. The group behind the
attacks is believed to be the Islamist group Boko Haram, who have threatened further
violence if Christians and animists do not leave the predominantly Muslim north. There
have been warnings of a civil war, along with reports of thousands of Christians and
Animists fleeing the north of Nigeria. Last week, Archbishop John Onaiyekan of Abuja
told Aid to the Church in Need that after the attacks over Christmas many Muslims
wrote to him expressing their sympathy and that eight imams visited him to express
condolences. Pope Benedict XVI in his annual address to the ambassadors to the Holy
See on Monday, strongly condemned the attacks on churches on Christmas Day in Nigeria.
The Holy Father expressed his closeness with the Christian community and all those
affected by the violence.