Nigerian Christian group threatens retaliation over Islamist attacks

Nigerian Christian group threatens retaliation over Islamist attacks. Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta says it will launch terror campaign 'in defence of Christianity'

The Mend leader Henry Okah in court in Johannesburg. He was convicted of terrorism last month. Photograph: AP
Nigeria could face a battle between rival terrorist groups after Christian militants threatened to attack Muslim targets in response to bombings carried out by the Islamist group Boko Haram.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), the umbrella body of armed groups in Nigeria's oil-rich Niger Delta, said it would launch a new terror campaign "in defence of Christianity".
"The bombings of mosques, hajj camps, Islamic institutions, large congregations in Islamic events and assassinations of clerics that propagate doctrines of hate will form the core mission of this crusade," the Mend spokesman Jomo Gbomo said in an emailed statement.

The group appears to be responding to the ongoing attacks against churches and Christian populations in northern Nigeria, which some estimate have killed more than 1,000 people, including Christians and Muslims, in recent years.
The threat of a new round of violence, which Mend said would be codenamed Operation Barbarossa, comes a week after the Christian group claimed responsibility for the ambush of a boat in Bayelsa state, southern Nigeria, in which 13 police officers were killed.
The statement prompted concern in Nigeria, although there were questions about whether Mend had the capacity to launch widespread attacks on Muslim targets.

Last month the Mend leader Henry Okah was sentenced to 24 years in jail after a South African court convicted him of terrorism over twin car bombings in Nigeria's capital city, Abuja, in 2010.

There was speculation that the threat from Mend was at attempt to coerce the government into negotiating for Okah's release. "The timing of this sentence suggests to me that this might be intended as some sort of proxy conflict with the federal government," said Abiola. "But at this point in time and given the unpredictable turn of events in Nigeria, that anything is possible and they shouldn't be ignored."