NEW YORK – The Catholic Church is working to bridge the divide between Muslims and Christians in a country where the divide between the groups is fraught with large and small issues, said a Nigerian archbishop.

OTTAWA – The run-up to a general election in Nigeria has triggered concerns about growing violence and an increase in Christian persecution, said the national director of Nigeria’s Pontifical Mission Society.

OTTAWA – The Pontifical Mission Societies and Aid to the Church in Need are urging Canadians to support Nigerian Christians under attack by Boko Haram and other Islamist extremist groups.

WASHINGTON – Bishop Oliver D. Doeme of Maiduguri, Nigeria, has seen his share of death, violence and destruction in the past nine years, but he keeps his focus on his firm belief that the local church will be restored.

ISSELE-UKU, Nigeria – Five nuns were abducted by gunmen in Nigeria’s Delta state on Thursday, according to local media.

OTTAWA – Aid to the Church in Need (ACN) Canada intends to make the plight of Nigerian Christians a priority in the coming year, says the pontifical charity’s Canadian director.

LAGOS, Nigeria – Bishop Hilary Dachelem of Bauchi has appealed to the Nigerian government and security agencies to work for the rescue of the 110 schoolgirls kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram insurgents in February.

ABUJA, Nigeria – 82 girls abducted by Boko Haram militants over three years ago have been freed.

LAGOS, Nigeria – The Catholic bishop of a diocese at the center of the Boko Haram insurgency said the militants need to be fought on several levels.

ABUJA, Nigeria – At a recent meeting, the Catholic Bishops of Nigeria gave a bleak summary of the state of their country, lamenting humanitarian crises including violence at the hands of Boko Haram and other extremist groups, poverty, government corruption, and a lack of respect for human rights or dignity.

LAGOS, Nigeria – The head of the Nigerian bishops' conference urged has urged Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari to stop the evolving culture of brutality and savagery in Nigeria, which he said was unparalleled in its history.

LAGOS, Nigeria – Three Catholic leaders welcomed the release of some of the girls kidnapped in 2014 from a school in Chibok and urged the Nigerian government to prioritize the release of the remaining girls.

CAPE TOWN, South Africa – When aid worker El-hedji Gombe Abba was growing up, very little happened on the road that runs through Niger's Diffa region into the city, but nowadays people fleeing Boko Haram violence form a seemingly endless line along it.

WASHINGTON – While in past years the wave of Muslim violence against Christians has been prominent in the U.S. State Department's annual report on international religious freedom, the latest report, released Aug. 10, focuses on Muslim violence against other Muslims.

Recently I received, on the same day, articles from three different sources. One was about the 219 girls captured by Boko Haram who are still missing. The second, about “way more” than 1,200 aboriginal Canadian women missing or murdered. And the third, about 4,472 baby girls “unaccounted for” in Canada over the past 20 years, referring to female fetuses aborted in favour of male children.