The terrorist group Boko Haram struck again in Nigeria on Friday, with a vicious attack on civilians in the northern city of Kano. The radical Islamist sect has killed over 900 people since 2009, targeting churches and police stations in gruesome attacks against Nigeria’s civilians. The death toll for Friday’s violence has soared past 200, with hundreds more wounded.
Friday’s attacks began with an explosion at a local police station in Kano, with repeated explosions following. Masked gunmen chased down and shot civilians throughout the streets of the northern city.
The group’s goals are muddled, according to government officials, who say that the group seeks to impose Sharia law in Nigeria, obtain revenge for past scuffles with Nigeria’s government, and push Christians out of the northern regions of the country. The group has consistently targeted Christians in repeated attacks against churches. Last year and this year, Nigerian Christians faced brutal Christmas Day attacks that left hundreds dead.
Rev. Yunusa Nmadu directs Christian Solidarity Worldwide in Nigeria. He says that the recent spate of attacks is terrorizing Nigeria’s Christian community, and that the violence “has driven fear into many Christians in northern Nigeria, leading to a drop in church attendance.”
Joe Bavier of The Atlantic writes that Boko Haram is “actually the nickname in the Hausa language for the group officially known in Arabic as ‘Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati Wal-Jihad’ -- the People Committed to the Propagation of the Prophet's Teachings and Jihad.” He says that the group’s name translates loosely as "Western education is forbidden.”
Bavier says that the militant group’s targeting of churches leads to several possible conclusions about their goals. “In the choosing of churches as targets for bombings, many see an attempt to drive a wedge between Christians and Muslims,” he says, “and perhaps push Nigeria into a civil war fueled on both sides by religious extremism.”
Rev. Nmadu believes the group is on a revenge mission – against Nigeria’s Christians. Boko Haram is targeting Christians, he says, because of previous violence between Muslims and Christians. The pastor believes the group is targeting churches to avenge Muslims killed during the recent violent crisis in Plateau and Kaduna states. Moreover, he believes that Boko Haram is bent on eradicating the Christian community in the north. “This excuse by the group to attack Christians is a pretense,” he says. “What they are doing is a longtime grand plan to exterminate Christians in northern Nigeria.”
On Tuesday a joint military task force arrested over 150 suspected militants, members of Boko Haram.
“The government of Nigeria at every level must be more proactive and sensitive to the [killing of] Christians,” Rev. Nmadu says. He calls on the government to bring justice to those bent on destroying Nigeria’s Christian community. “Bring to justice all those who are destroying our churches and killing us” is his plea.
