Jihadi fighters in Nigeria have been filmed attacking women and children during a brutal wave of anti-Christian violence in the West African country.
The Christmas weekend attacks on communities in the central state of Plateau have led Catholic and Nigerian authorities to call for an intervention.
The attacks are said to have killed close to 200 from Nigeria’s minority Christian population.
Footage shared on social media shows reportedly Islamic militants branding sticks and guns attacking a woman carrying a baby.
Climate change has been blamed in part for the deaths of nearly 200 Christians, though some argue that the violence represents a targeted genocide against church followers by Muslims.
The mention of climate change as a factor in the recent attack has enraged a Roman Catholic priest, who claims that religious persecution receives insufficient attention.
On Christmas Eve, armed groups of men wielding guns and machetes assaulted residents in 26 different villages across Nigeria. Leaving 198 people dead and 300 more Injured.
Monday Kassah, the head of the local government in Bokkos, Plateau State, to AFP: “As many as 113 persons have been confirmed killed as Saturday hostilities persisted to early hours of Monday.”
He explained that armed groups, referred to locally as “bandits,” executed “well-coordinated” attacks in “no fewer than 20 different communities,” setting houses ablaze.
According to preliminary data from the local Red Cross, 104 people were killed across 18 villages in the Bokkos region. Dickson Chollom, a member of Nigeria’s state parliament reported at least 50 casualties in various villages in the Barkin Ladi area. Condemning the attacks, he urged the security forces to act quickly.
