Terrorism Fuels a Humanitarian Crisis in Northern Nigeria

The terror group Boko Haram is ripping through Nigeria, shutting down schools, spreading violence, and displacing millions. 

While ISIS in Syria and Iraq grabs headlines and the attention of the international media, Boko Haram is terrorizing Africa. It is the world's deadliest terror organizations, with an even higher death count than the Islamic State, according to Mark Lipdo of the NIgerian-based humanitarian group the Stefanus Foundation

A new report from the 21st Century Wilberforce and the Nigeria-based Stefanus Foundation, reveals that millions have been affected. 

"14.8 million Nigerians from Northeast are directly impacted by the crisis. Officially, there are 2.2 million Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs," said Mark Lipdo, Executive Director of the Stefanus Foundation. . 

With that many people affected, every day life has been drastically interrupted.

Some 611 teachers have been murdered, 1500 schools are no longer operating, 2,000 children abducted, and 10,000 child soldiers are forced to fight for the terror organization. 

The affect on churches is just as devastating. 

Around 12,000 churches have been shut down, forcing many to practice their faith in secret. 

Many are concerned the violence will spread beyond Nigeria and into the surrounding areas. 

"This could affect other countries in West African region like the Republic of Benin, Chad, Cameroon, Mali, and Niger," said Elijah Brown, Vice President of the 21st Wilberforce Initiative. 

"A disturbing fact about the problem is that it has not received substantial humanitarian response from the world's most powerful nations as other disasters of relatively smaller degrees in other parts of the world," he added.

Activists are calling on international powers to do something to stop one of the biggest humanitarian disasters in the world. 

"Come to the aid of many victims of insurgency within and outside internally displaced people's camps or homes; those who have been stripped naked, the jobless, the orphaned, those maimed and the widowed in Nigeria," he said.