Abuja, Nigeria, Mar 15, 2017 / 23:04 pm
At a recent meeting, the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria gave a bleak summary of the state of their country, lamenting humanitarian crises including violence at the hands of Boko Haram and other extremist groups, poverty, government corruption, and a lack of respect for human rights or dignity.
"Since the end of Nigeria's tragic civil war, at no other time in the history of our dear country has the issue of our common citizenship been subjected to more strain," the bishops said in a statement at the conclusion of their plenary assembly, held in Abuja March 4-10.
"We have found the outright disdain for the sanctity of human life totally at variance with both our cultural traditional norms and our religious sensibilities. Life has never looked so cheap," they said.
While Nigeria's civil war ended in 1970, the country has recently undergone a period of extreme violence and instability, with the rise of Boko Haram and other Islamist terrorist groups.