Nigeria violence: Pope calls for peace and end to Boko Haram

In a speech to the ambassadors of the Holy See, Pope Benedict XVI encouraged efforts to build peace in sub-Saharan Africa and Nigeria.

“I think particularly of the Horn of Africa, and the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where new of acts of violence have erupted, forcing many people to abandon their homes, families and surroundings,” he said.

Among “other threats looming on the horizon,” the pontiff lamented violence in Nigeria, which is “regularly the scene of terrorist attacks which reap victims above all among the Christian faithful gathered in prayer.”

It is, he said, “as if hatred intended to turn temples of prayer and peace into places of fear and division.” “I was deeply saddened to learn that, even in the days when we celebrated Christmas, some Christians were barbarously put to death,” Benedict added.

During a Christmas Eve service, gunmen attacked a church in Yobe state, killing six people, including the pastor, before setting the building on fire.

The attack was followed days later by further violence that saw attackers slit the throats of 15 Christians in a pre-dawn raid in Musari Village, Maiduguri.