Die wichtigste internationale Organisation, die die Baptisten weltweit vertritt, fordert die Vereinten Nationen auf, die Gefahrenstufe für Nigeria und die Tschadsee-Region anzuheben.
Declaring that the area is rife with conflict and dislocation, the Baptist World Alliance asserts that ?violence, murder, and kidnapping [have] directly impacted more than 14 million people with between three and five million being internally displaced.?
This has resulted ?in rampant malnutrition, leaving thousands of persons on the verge of starvation.?
The threat level, the BWA says, must be raised to Level 3, the ?most severe large scale humanitarian crisis.?
Extremisten in Nigeria, vor allem die gewalttätige islamistische Gruppe Boko Haram und militante Fulani, haben eine Reihe von Angriffen in Nigeria und den Nachbarländern wie Kamerun, Tschad und Niger verübt. Millionen von Menschen haben ihr Eigentum, ihr Zuhause und ihre landwirtschaftlichen Erzeugnisse verloren und mussten in andere Länder oder in ihre Heimatländer fliehen.
The BWA notes that ?people of faith and houses of worship have been intentionally targeted, including the damage or destruction of thousands of churches and numerous mosques.?
Samson Ayokunle, Präsident der Nigerian Baptist Convention, hat die internationale Gemeinschaft dafür gegeißelt, dass sie terroristische Gewalt und Anschläge in dem westafrikanischen Land ignoriert.
He accused the world community of devaluing Nigerian lives. “Does it not matter to the rest of the world if Boko Haram continues to kill hundreds of people every week? Are these people less human than those being killed in other places where they have gone to directly intervene? My people are being killed like animals and the whole world is just watching,? Ayokunle said after a particularly brutal series of attacks in Nigeria.
The BWA invites Baptists everywhere ?to stand in solidarity with Nigeria and the Lake Chad Region, to pray for the development of transformative peace throughout the country and region, and to actively work to build a context of justice, human rights, rule of law, and religious freedom for all people.?
Baptist World Alliance�
� July 8, 2016