Holy War

"They shot my father dead, and then came for the rest of the family. One chased my brother Moussa and killed him, and the other shot at me, but my mother took the bullet in the stomach instead." Hyeladi Adurkwa, 25

This was an unexpected after-hours call at the home of a local trader who lived next to the Victory Baptist Church in the desert city of Maiduguri, Nigeria. Perhaps not totally unexpected, since after all, Christians have been warned that God would desert them. A purported representative of the Islamist terror group Boko Haram, also termed Nigeria's "Taliban", did warn all Christians to leave the area.

This is oil-rich Nigeria, Africa's largest, most populous country. Where tensions between Muslims and Christians run high. And where do they not, particularly of late, in Africa and in the Middle East and the far East, where Christians of all denominations have become an endangered species. The government claims that Boko Haram has been defanged, and it is criminals who now pose as Islamists preying on people.

That's scarce comfort to those whom they attack and murder, whose churches they bomb and whom they target for suicide bombings. On the other hand, those in the know claim that Boko Haram, an indigenous group of fanatical Islamists, have joined forces with al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and with al-Shebaab in Somalia.

Nigerian Christians attempt to comfort one another. Their pastors sermonize and urge upon them "prayers for those who God has taken away, and comfort for those who remain". Ethnic and religious cleansing is taking place all over Africa and the Middle East; it is an epidemic of Islamist and tribal antipathy toward the 'other'.

"We are going through a very difficult time because of Boko Haram. Two weeks ago, a nearby church was also burnt down, and nine other Christians have been killed. Now all the houses around me are emptying." Joseph Adams, a next-door neighbour to the Aduwurkas.

On Christmas Day a car bomb killed 42 worshippers at morning mass at Saint Theresa's Catholic Church just outside the capital city Abuja, in Madalla. Children and pregnant women among them.

Goodluck Jonathan, who was just recently controversially re-elected president, has declared a state of emergency throughout northern areas. Troops, tanks and plainclothes police have been put in place in an effort to stem the flow of hit-and-run attacks.

Despite their presence, explosions and gunfire rent the air at night.