Boko Haram: 'Displaced victims eat grass to survive'

According to the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri, over 90,000 of its members, displaced in the troubled North-East had to feed on grass and insects to survive in their hideouts.

The church, in a press statement by the Director of Information, Rev. Fr. Gideon Obasogie on Sunday, said. "A good number of those trapped around the Cameroonian borders are gradually finding their way into Maiduguri. Counting their ordeals, some will tell you how they fed on grass and insects. A group from Pulka community alone buried over 80 children, who took ill in the bush and died."

He also decried that over 14 parishes have been sacked in the area, with about 20 priests displaced and some members still searching for their loved ones in both Maiduguri and Yola dioceses.

He noted that the church has spent over N3m on all internally displaced persons at different locations in Maiduguri, explaining that this church took to this because it "must bear witness to the Gospel both in word and deed."

The church encouraged the people "not to lose faith, but to use this moment of trial and persecution as a golden opportunity to express abundantly the faith they profess."