Open Doors plans spiritual and physical support for Nigeria’s beleaguered Christians.

Nigeria (MNN)–Nigeria is widely acknowledged as a bloody front between Christians and Muslims.

Militants are pushing Sharia law to govern the nation, while a Christian president struggles to bring about a peaceful solution. Already 12 Nigerian states have implemented sharia law. The militants want to turn Nigeria into a Muslim nation.

Published reports indicate an Islamic militant group that has been terrorizing non-Muslim communities in northern Nigeria since the beginning of the year struck again two weeks ago.

They burned down villages, killed four policemen and kidnapped seven Christians. Other raids on Christian villages resulted in death and destruction.

Open Doors Ministries’ Jerry Dykstra says the effort to bring the rebels to heel creates a pressurized situation, witnessed by the deaths of 1500 Christians this year. “There’s just a real escalation of the conflict there and there’s a reason for that. The Muslim militants would love to have Nigeria be a complete Muslim nation. Right now, there’s 59 million Christians there, and so this is really a battleground between the Muslims and the Christians.”

Dykstra says Open Doors launched a response. “We have a specific plan to rush 30-thousand Bibles there and also providing support for one-thousand new widows, (and) reaching out to nine-thousand new orphans with trauma counseling. Also, obviously, food, clothing and help rebuild(ing) churches.”