Nearly 200 Christians have been killed in Nigeria in the space of a week, prompting urgent calls from Catholic leaders for the government to act decisively against the escalating violence, Aleteia.org reported.
Religious leaders are warning that there are rivers of blood in the African country and that this slaughter must stop. Burnt bodies, many of them of women and children, have been found in burned-out homes, according to local reports.
Criticism is growing over the Nigerian government's failure to contain terrorism linked to jihadist factions including Boko Haram.
Catholic leaders say impunity and systematic failure of the ministry are fueling what has become one of the deadliest anti-Christian campaigns in the world.
According to some reports, more than 20,000 Christians have been killed in southeastern Nigeria over the past decade.
Catholic leaders are calling on the international community, particularly the United States and the European Union, to designate Nigeria as a country of particular concern and to classify groups such as the Fulani as terrorist organizations.
The Fulani, or Fulani as they call themselves, are a nomadic tribe scattered throughout West Africa. They are most numerous in Nigeria, Senegal and Guinea. In Nigeria, their militias are allowed to carry firearms, while Christians are not.
“This is no longer just a Nigerian problem. This is a moral crisis that the world can no longer afford to ignore,“ says a local bishop.