Nigeria: uncertainty in wake of attacks

(Vatican Radio) Terrorists believed to be connected with the Islamic Boko Haram group have killed 70 people in three attacks in northeastern Nigeria in recent days. Boko Haram has killed hundreds of civilians and members of security forces in recent weeks, as it continues to resist an intensified military crackdown ordered by President Goodluck Jonathan more than five months ago. The group wants to carve out an Islamic state in a country split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims. Listen:

In the worst single incident, gunmen fired on a convoy of people returning from a wedding party in Borno state on Saturday, killing 30 people, including the groom. The Archbishop of Jos in north-central Nigeria, Ignatius Paul Kaigama, told Vatican Radio the situation in the country is extremely fraught. “The situation in Nigeria is perplexing,” he said, “because at one [moment] we feel that everything is fine and done, and in another moment, you find that there is a terrible attack – brutal, uncivilized, and inhuman attack.”

Archbishop Kaigama says the Christian community is resolute. “The Christian community is a people of hope,” he said, adding, “we do not give up easily – even under the attacks and terrible disruption of our lives – things will go on.”

Thousands have been killed since Boko Haram launched an
uprising against the state in 2009, turning itself from a
clerical movement opposed to Western culture into an armed militia with links to al Qaeda's West African wing.

President Jonathan declared a state of emergency in three
northeastern states in May and a military surge initially
reduced attacks in major towns and cities across the north, though Boko Haram's fighters have retreated to the semi-arid region in the north and to the forested hills and caves on the border with Cameroon, where they have been able to regroup and counter-attack ever since.