Defence Web | February 28, 2020
Islamist militant groups in Nigeria have begun targeting Christians in an attempt to provoke a religious war, the information minister said on Thursday.
Islamist insurgents in Nigeria have killed around 35,000 people and displaced at least two million in the past decade, driven first by Boko Haram and more recently by its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
Information Minister Lai Mohammed said jihadist groups in the northeast of the country have now adopted a “deliberate policy of attacking Christians.”
“They have started targeting Christians and Christian villages for a specific reason, which is to trigger a religious war and throw the nation into chaos,” he told reporters.
Nigeria’s 200 million inhabitants are roughly split between Islam and Christianity.