Nigeria’s dangerous Christmas present

19 February 2026, The Tablet

Damage to a Catholic church following an attack in Owo, Nigeria in 2022

ALAMY/AP, SUNDAY ALAMBA

Bishop Kukah has long argued for solutions that address the needs of Muslims and Christians alike, and has no time for what he terms “the artificial manipulation of religion”.

Gunmen went from house to house, rounding up villagers and shooting them in the head. The killing spree earlier this month in the Muslim-majority villages of Woro and Nuku in Nigeria’s western Kwara state, went on for hours, residents told the Associated Press. Shops and homes were razed. Footage in a BBC report showed smouldering corrugated iron roofs piled like waste paper on the dusty ground. In what was Nigeria’s worst massacre since a hundred or so displaced people were slaughtered in the village of Yelwata in Benue state last June, 162 people were killed according to local officials, and others were kidnapped.

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