A bishop in northeastern Nigeria said the country's president must give the newly appointed military service chiefs the constitutional support for them to be able to flush out the Boko Haram militants.
"We need more security personnel in this part of the country, and it is only the new service chiefs that can deploy them to this area to crush the sects," Bishop Stephen Dami Mamza of Yola told Catholic News Service Jan. 29. "The soldiers, when deployed here, will be able to further weaken the strength of the Boko Haram and end the insurgency.''
Mamza spoke to CNS three days after 22 worshippers were killed immediately at a Catholic church in the village of Waga Chakawa in his state, Adamawa. He said the death toll had risen to 31, with 11 injured. They were among more than 70 people killed in one day in two separate attacks in two separate northeastern states, where the Islamist sect Boko Haram is resisting a military crackdown. Thousands have been killed since the sect launched an insurgency in 2009.