Over 100 killed due to attacks on Nigerian churches
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E-mail Xinhua, June 23, 2012
The UN human rights office has reported that more than 100 people in Nigeria were killed following attacks on churches in the African country by a radical Islamic group, UN spokesman Martin Nesirky said on Friday.
"The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) says that more than 100 people have been killed in Nigeria since last Sunday after several churches were attacked by the Boko Haram group," Nesirky said at a daily news briefing.
The bombing attacks were carried out on June 17 against churches in Nigeria's northwestern Kaduna state. On June 18, Boko Haram, a militant Islamic sect that operates mainly in northern Nigeria and the country's capital, claimed responsibility for the attacks.
"Thirty of those people were killed in the initial attacks at the churches in Kaduna, in the north of the country, and the subsequent retaliation by Christian youths," Nesirky noted. "The rest were reportedly killed in clashes between security forces and Muslims."
According to the spokesman, Navi Pillay, the UN high commissioner for human rights, has condemned the attacks by Boko Haram against places of worship and religious freedom.
"She said that these were blatant attempts to stir sectarian tensions and violence between two communities that have lived together peacefully for so long," said Nesirky. "She added that systematic attacks against a civilian population, on grounds such as religion or ethnicity, would amount to crimes against humanity. "
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