- 350 Catholic churches destroyed in one diocese alone,
- More than half the diocese's institutions deserted,
- Boko Haram controls 85% of the territory,
- Boko Haram recently pledged its allegiance to the Islamic State Caliphate, and re-named itself 'Islamic State in Nigeria'.
Boko Haram Targets Catholics: 100,000 Homeless From Islamist Insurgency, Christian Charity Says
by Morgan Winsor, International Business Times � May 12, 2015
h/t Jihad Watch
More than 100,000 Nigerian Catholics have been left homeless by Boko Haram�s six-year insurgency in northeast Nigeria and another 5,000 have been killed, a Christian charity said Tuesday. As a result, there are now 7,000 widows and 10,000 orphans in the Maiduguri diocese, Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) told Premier.
A report by the charity also found some 350 churches have been destroyed in the diocese, which encompasses Borno and Yobo states as well as part of Adamawa. More than half of the Maiduguri diocese�s parish centers, chaplaincies and church-run primary schools have been deserted by Nigerian Catholics and many of them are occupied by Boko Haram militants, who control up to 85 percent of the diocese territory.
�People are very scared, and those who are able to return home find there is nothing left,� Rev. Father Gideon Obasogie, the diocesan director of social communications, told ACN, according to Catholic Herald. �A life lived with much fear is terrible.��
Boko Haram has sworn loyalty to the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS or ISIL. ISIS officially accepted its pledge in March, making Boko Haram the largest and most lethal jihadi group to be inducted into the Islamic State group�s network. The militants seek the establishment of a state in northeast Nigeria based on strict Islamic law.
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