Africa News World

Interfaith report: Poverty and injustice drive Nigeria’s sectarian violence

Poverty, inequality and injustice are threatening to trigger a broad sectarian conflict in Nigeria, an international Christian-Muslim task force said on Wednesday.

Interfaith report: Poverty and injustice drive Nigeria’s sectarian violence
(A roadblock burns after a bombing at St. Finbarr’s Catholic Church in the Rayfield suburb of the Nigerian city of Jos March 11, 2012. REUTERS/Stringer)

Clashes between Nigerian Christians and Muslims have already killed hundreds of people this year alone. But although the violence is the worst between members of the two faiths since the Bosnian war of 1992-1995, the root causes go far beyond religion, the group’s report said.

Corruption, mismanagement, land disputes and the lack of aid for victims or punishment for troublemakers have all fuelled tensions, especially in Nigeria’s “Middle Belt”, where the mostly Muslim north meets the largely Christian south, it said.

Attacks by radical Islamist groups such as Boko Haram that exploit these secular issues and revenge killings by Christian and Muslim gangs have reinforced the religious aspect of the violence.

“There is a possibility that the current tension and conflict might become subsumed by its religious dimension (especially along geographical ‘religious fault-lines’),” the report said, warning that blaming only religion for the strife would make that incomplete view “a self-fulfilling prediction”.

The 12-member joint delegation was led by World Council of Churches (WCC) General Secretary Olav Fyske Tveit of Norway and Jordanian Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad, chairman of the board of the Royal Aal al-Bayt Institute for Islamic Thought.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email
Article from: blogs.reuters.com

We Recommend

The yoopya.com portal presents worldwide news, covering a large spectrum of content categories including Entertainment, Politics, Sports, Health, Education, Science and Technology and more. Top local and global news in the best possible journalistic quality. We connect users via a free webmail service and innovative.

Interfaith report: Poverty and injustice drive Nigeria’s sectarian violence

Discover more from Top Local & Global trusted News | Secure Email Account

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading