Instead, Fr. Dewan says, the Church and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have been providing shelter, food, clothing and other basic necessities to IDPs and others struggling to survive.
The Nigerian Catholic Priest, who has been helping to look after IDPs at St Thomas’s Catholic Church in Bokkos, Plateau State, adds that he regularly receives reports of fresh killings and other atrocities.
When he spoke to ACN, Fr. Dewan recalled a July 13 attack in which a Christian woman and her daughter were kidnapped, and the attack the following day (Sunday, July 14) when armed Fulani herdsmen stormed a Christian community in Bokkos once again and “killed the village head”.
Fr. Dewan told ACN that there is a clear religious dimension to the attacks, even though conflict over land is also a factor, with Muslim-majority herdsmen targeting overwhelmingly Christian farming communities.
He added that an already existing famine has been aggravated by extremists forcing farmers to abandon their lands, destroying food supplies, and in many cases attacking those attempting to return to their lands.
“Hunger is going to increase in the coming year because of a lack of protection for farmers,” Fr. Dewan is quoted as saying in the June 16 report, and adds, “Food prices have already more than doubled in the last month alone.”
He also says that the Christian community’s faith is being tested and many are losing their patience despite the Church’s attempts to promote perseverance and forgiveness.
ACI Africa was founded in 2019. We provide free, up-to-the-minute news affecting the Catholic Church in Africa, giving particular emphasis to the words of the Holy Father and happenings of the Holy See, to any person with access to the internet. ACI Africa is proud to offer free access to its news items to Catholic dioceses, parishes, and websites, in order to increase awareness of the activities of the universal Church and to foster a sense of Catholic thought and culture in the life of every Catholic.
