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ATTACKS AGAINST CHRISTIANS CONTINUE IN NIGERIA
By Julian Dobbs
March 20, 2013
At least 41 people died last week, as the result of a suicide car bomb that struck a bus station in a Christian neighborhood in Kano, northern Nigeria's busiest commercial center, in the most deadly attack in nine months that is blamed on Islamic extremists.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but suspicion immediately fell on the radical Islamic network Boko Haram. The group has been waging a campaign of bombings and shootings across Nigeria's north and is held responsible for more than 790 deaths last year alone, and dozens more since the beginning of this year.
The Rt. Rev. Julian Dobbs, Anglican Bishop of the Church of Nigeria [based in McLean, Virginia] returned Thursday from a visit to Nigeria's capital, Abuja where he discussed the violence with church leaders.
Bishop Dobbs said, "The continuing violence perpetrated against Christians in Nigeria is indefensible. It is time for the Nigerian government and global community to utilize all resources available to stop attacks initiated by Boko Haram."
The Anglican Church in Nigeria is the largest Province in the Anglican Communion with over 20 million Anglican Christians in church every Sunday. Bishop Dobbs said, "As Christians across Nigeria gather to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ this Easter, many Nigerian Christian in the north are too afraid to leave their homes."
Since 2011 the world has witnessed Boko Haram carry out a series of organized acts of violence on an ever increasing scale which may point to a concerted attempt by the group to push Nigeria into a civil war.
Bishop Dobbs is calling on Christians right across North America to speak out on behalf of suffering Christians in Nigeria and is urging the Obama Administration to list Boko Haram as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
CANA Bishop Julian Dobbs is based in Nthn. Va. CANA is a constituent member of teh ACNA
