76,000 Christians displaced by Islamic State in northern Nigeria

The city of Dikwa, in Nigeria's northern Borno state, has seen 76,000 of its residents forced to flee following assaults by Islamic militants. Within those 76,000 are the last Christians which were living in the region.

Some refugees have had to move as much as 100 km away from Dikwa in order to find sanctuary, despite the fact that many of them had come to Dikwa for sanctuary in the first place from further on, already fleeing ISWAP.

According to the United Nations OCHA, members of ISWAP, or Islamic State Western African Province, are claiming responsibility, and are currently holding the city in their power as of the time of this writing.

ISWAP is aligned with the global Islamic State, known as IS, ISIS, ISIL, or sometimes Daesh.

Kallamu Musa Ali of the Center of Justice on Religion and Ethnicity, stated:

"Most of our people have moved from Dikwa to Ajiri in Mafa Local Government Area. ISWAP terrorists have re-strategised now, there is really no Christian in that place. If you see Christians, it’s those who work with NGOs or the military, so they hardly attack their fellow Muslims."

"The people who left DIkwa for Ajiri were young people while the old ones remained,” he said. “We are only managing, the situation is very terrible."

In recent years, almost 38,000 people in Nigeria have died in the violence in the northern part of the country, where Islamic extremists have strength. Out of that number, most of them have been civilians and almost all of them have been Christians.