Prelate laments flow of weapons into Nigeria

(April 25, 2013) Church officials in Nigeria lamented the flow of weapons into Nigeria following the death of at least 185 people, many of them civilians, during a gun battle between Nigerian forces and members of the Islamist terrorist organization Boko Haram.
“We must ask how these weapons reach Nigeria,” said Archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, the president of Nigeria’s Episcopal Conference, in an apparent reference to the arms used by Boko Haram. “While the most sophisticated ones come from abroad, in Nigeria there are clandestine laboratories manufacturing homemade weapons and improvised explosive devices.”
“Now we even have a higher level of weaponry, much more than what they were using before,” added Father Evaristus Bassey, national director of Caritas Nigeria, who said he was surprised by the clash in light of recent amnesty discussions in the west African nation.
CWN: