Nigeria and sectarian violence

Map of Nigeria, from Wikipedia

Today, the High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay urged Nigeria's political and religious leaders to make all necessary efforts to stop the spiralling sectarian violence unleashed by the Boko Haram group.

“It is essential that the country’s leadership, and especially its Muslim and Christian leaders, join forces to unequivocally condemn all violence, including retaliation, and encourage their followers to identify and help arrest all those involved in killings and other acts of violence that have been taking place,” the UN human rights chied said in a news release.
Deliberate acts leading to population “cleansing” on grounds of religion or ethnicity would also amount to a crime against humanity, she added.
As security forces are struggling to containing the growing threat there are rumors that Boko Haram is receiving help from abroad, possibly from terrorist groups, including al-Qaida
Boko Haram, is a terrorist organisation based in the north east of Nigeria that seeks to "abolish the secular system and establish an Islamic state" and "establish Sharia system of government in the country." The country's 160 million people are roughly evenly split between Christians and Muslims.