Nigeria: Archbishop calls for compensation for victims of Boko Haram

Funeral after Christmas Day attack

A Nigerian archbishop has called on the government to compensate churches and other victims of islamist terror group Boko Haram.

"In the past six years, insurgents have attacked churches and other Christian places in the north, but the federal government is yet to compensate the victims", said His Exc Mgr Matthew Man-oso Ndagoso, Archbishop of Kaduna, speaking on behalf of the Catholic Bishops of Kaduna Ecclesiastical Province.

The conference comprises the dioceses of Kaduna, Sokoto, Kotangora, Zaria, Minna, Kano and Kafanchan in the north of Nigeria, who held their plenary session, at the cathedral in Minna this week.

Archbishop Ndagoso told journalists: "I want to inform you that the Catholic Church has not received any support from the federal government for the Churches affected."

The first terrorist attack was on St Theresa Catholic Church, Madalla, on Christmas Day, 2011 in which 32 people were killed and many more injured. Last year, some youths attacked St Philips Catholic Church, Bakin Iku, near Suleja, destroying properties valued at several millions of Naira. "No one has even sympathised with us," the Archbishop said.

Mgr Ndagoso said that the federal government was supposed to be responsible for giving assistance to the churches and the victims.

In May 2015, Aid to the Church in Need reported that more than 5,000 Catholics in north-east Nigeria had been killed and at least 100,000 had been displaced.

The 'Situation Report on the activities of Boko Haram in the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri' states that more than 350 churches in the diocese have been badly attacked, "a good number of them destroyed more than once. (See ICN 12 May 2015 www.indcatholicnews.com/news/27410 )