Christians vow to resist violence in Nigeria

A radical Muslim sect attacked a church worship service in Nigeria’s north-east during assaults that killed at least 15 people, authorities said today, as Christians vowed to defend themselves from the group’s widening sectarian fight against the country’s government.

The attacks by the sect known as Boko Haram came after it promised to kill Christians living in Nigeria’s largely Muslim north, exploiting long-standing religious and ethnic tensions in the nation of more than 160 million people. The pledge by the leader of an umbrella organisation called the Christian Association of Nigeria now raises the possibility of retaliatory violence.