Nigeria

Nigeria

Nigeria
ET staff writer
ET staff writer
01 March, 2015 1 min read

More than a million people have fled their homes in terror as a result of incessant attacks from Boko Haram militants in north-eastern Nigeria.

According to reports from Christian advocacy group Barnabas Fund, victimisation and violence have become part of everyday life for many people there, particularly Christians.

Alongside Boko Haram, Christians in northern Nigeria are also victims of repeated violence from ethnic Fulani Muslims, who have been responsible for killings, burning houses and forcing Christians to flee.

Displaced Nigerian Christians have fled in droves to neighbouring Cameroon, where they have been given food and medical assistance from Barnabas Fund.

On Sunday 25 January, the strategic Nigerian town of Maiduguri in Borno state was attacked. Earlier the same day, militants rampaged through Monguno town in the same state, burning houses to the ground.

Earlier in January, at least 19 people were killed in the country when a 10-year-old girl was reported to have blown herself up in Maiduguri, also in Borno state. The next day, four people were killed and over 40 injured, in attacks from two female suicide bombers in Potiskum, Yobe state, Nigeria.

Other reports claim that Christians living in the Cameroonian villages close to the Nigerian border are still subject to attacks from Boko Haram militants, who are spreading terror as they seize cattle, sheep, goats and motorbikes. The militants also burn millet, cotton and peanut crops, and raze homes to the grounds.

According to the International Organisation for Migration, by the end of 2014, more than one million Nigerians had been displaced as a result of Boko Haram attacks, with at least 912,000 internally displaced and the remainder spilling over into Cameroon, Chad and Niger.

Barnabas Fund has set up a special campaign, Victims of Violence Fund, for Christians to help Nigerian victims of anti-Christian brutality.

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