Letter to the High Commissioner of Nigeria in Canada from Bishop François Lapierre, P.M.É., Chairman of the CCCB Human Rights Committee, regarding the recent violent attacks by the Boko Haram sect in Nigeria

Tuesday, November 15 2011

Bishop François Lapierre, P.M.É., Chairman of the CCCB Human Rights Committee, has written to Professor Iyorwuese Hagher of the High Commission of Nigeria in Canada about the recent violent attacks by the Boko Haram sect in the States of Yobe and Borno, Nigeria. In his letter, Bishop Lapierre points out the attacks, directed against churches and mosques, claimed many victims.

Bishop Lapierre joins his concerns to those of Pope Benedict XVI who has called for an end in Nigeria to “all violence, which does not resolve problems but accentuates them by sowing hatred and discord, also among believers” (Message following the Angelus, November 6, 2011). In support of this call for peace from the Holy Father and also an appeal by Archbishop Ignatius Ayau Kaigama of Jos, Nigeria, Bishop Lapierre asked that the Government of Nigeria “take the necessary measures that will ensure the rights not only of the residents of the villages recently affected by this violence but all Nigerians, so they can live in peace and security.”