AFRICA/NIGERIA - "Stop to arms also those built illegally": Msg. Kaigama’s appeal

Monday, 22 April 2013

Abuja (Agenzia Fides) - "It is a tragedy that continues. Unfortunately, it is no surprise that there are clashes in the area and that a large number of people have lost their lives. What should surprise us is that this situation continues with no apparent solution. Indeed, what concerns us is that new crises are added every day. " This is the comment to Fides Agency by His Exc. Mgr. Ignatius Ayau Kaigama, Archbishop of Jos and President of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria concerning the clashes between the military and Boko Haram in Baga, a fishing village on the shores of Lake Chad in the north-east of Country. According to press reports at least 185 people, mostly civilians, have been killed in the fighting between soldiers and Boko Haram guerrillas.
It is right on the spread of increasingly sophisticated weapons that Mgr. Kaigama expresses his concern. "Like I have said many times we must ask how these weapons reach Nigeria. While the most sophisticated ones come from abroad, in Nigeria there are clandestine laboratories manufacturing homemade weapons and improvised explosive devices "denounces the Archbishop. "It is a worrying phenomenon because we are witnessing a spread of these clandestine laboratories in the cities, villages and in the forests in which they illegal weapons are built. All this must stop as soon as possible," concluded Mgr. Kaigama. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 22/04/2013)


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