After kidnapping schoolgirls, Boko Haram takes aim at churches in northeast Nigeria

c. 2014 Religion News Service

NAIROBI, KENYA (RNS) Five months after Boko Haram abducted more than 200 girls in Nigeria’s Borno State, the Islamic extremist group has begun occupying churches in the country’s northeastern region, church officials there said.

The militant group, which church leaders and analysts view as an African variation of the Islamic State, is also killing men, and forcing Christian women to convert to Islam and taking them as wives, officials said.