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ROME (AFP) – An Italian minister on Sunday
condemned “ethnic and religious cleansing” in
Nigeria following attacks on churches claimed by
Islamist group Boko Haram in which three people
were killed and dozens injured.
“Christian blood has again been spilt in Nigeria
according to a now clear plan of ethnic and religious
cleansing,” said International Cooperation Minister
Andrea Riccardi, the founder of a Catholic charity
active in Africa.
“The international community can no longer look on
at this massacre of innocent people without
intervening,” Riccardi said.
Foreign Minister Giulio Terzi also condemned the
violence in a statement saying the reports had
evoked “great pain and indignation.”
“I reaffirm Italy’s maximum engagement in
protecting and promoting religious freedom and in
confronting the challenge of terrorism,” he said.
Earlier on Sunday a suicide bomber blew his car up
outside an evangelical church in the central city of
Jos, causing the building to collapse entirely.
In the second attack, gunmen opened fire during a
service in the northeastern town of Biu also in an
evangelical church.
Boko Haram’s insurgency has killed more than 1,000
people since mid-2009, especially in Nigeria’s
Muslim-dominated north.