Catholic clerics in Benue State, Nigeria, have called on the national and subnational governments to protect human life and restore occupied territories.
Some deny the religious roots of violence sweeping the country, while others welcome help of any kind, alleging federal government complicity in the attacks.
The expansion to 176 dioceses across Africa's most populous nation, significantly more than any other Anglican church, testifies to a focus on evangelization and pastoral care.
Residents of Yelwata, who are among the region’s 2 million internal refugees, are protesting about insufficient protection after bandits killed three more people on August 11.
Ndukuba called the election of Vann, a partnered lesbian, “an abandonment of the faith.” Shehata, a member of the commission for “good disagreement,” said it “risk[s] rendering our efforts fruitless.”
According to Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics, 614,937 people were killed in the country in the past year, a death toll 10 times higher than that of the war between Russia and Ukraine.
