The Boko Haram (Western education is sin) group is also known as the Nigerian Taliban and aims to cleanse Nigeria of western influences and impose Shari’a law throughout the country.

According to local sources, around 100 people died when Boko Haram militants attacked a police station in Bauchi State this weekend, after the state government began to arrest its members.

Boko Haram was allegedly also behind earlier violence in Bauchi Town in February, during which at least eleven people died, over 1,500 Christians were displaced, and 14 churches, eight vicarages, one mosque and numerous homes were destroyed.

During a recent visit to the area Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) learned that prior to the outbreak of violence in Bauchi Town in February 2009, church leaders had received reports that a group of almost 4,000 militants, allegedly trained in the art of weaponry and explosives in Sudan, were amassing in the area. They had passed on this information to state officials, who at that time had taken no action to avert the violence.

While Bauchi town is reportedly calm following the imposition of a curfew, violence has continued to rage in Maiduguri, capital of Borno State, where a bomb was reported to have exploded in a building in the Railway suburb where incendiary devices were being prepared by militants.

According to sources, bomb-making manuals were later recovered from the site. Residents are currently confined to their homes and report a continuing exchange of gunfire between militants and armed forces in the centre of Maiduguri.

CSW has received confirmation that a pastor from the Church of Christ in Nigeria has been killed and at least five church buildings have been destroyed in the continuing violence, including the EYN Central, Deeper Life and Evangelical Mission churches in the Wulari Suburb of Maiduguri. Many local Christians are reported to be taking shelter in the military barracks for safety.

In Yobe State, members of Boko Haram attacked the Potiskum Division One police station and set it ablaze. Yobe remains tense, with reports that least two churches have been destroyed so far.

The group is now reported to have launched an attack on a police station in Wudil Town on the outskirts of Kano City, which is said to have been successfully repelled.

Tina Lambert, CSW’s Advocacy Director said: “The weekend’s events are deeply worrying, and validate consistent reports of the presence of armed militants in Nigeria who benefit from foreign assistance and funding, and whose agenda includes violence against non-Muslims, and also against the federal state itself.

"Clearly the Federal Government of Nigeria needs to act decisively to deal with a threat both to religious harmony and to its own existence”.