ABUJA, Nigeria, March 13 (UPI) -- A Nigerian group in the United States is urging the United Nations to list Boko Haram as a terrorist organization.
"Also, it is ironic that the U.N., whose office in Abuja was bombed by Boko Haram, has not listed it as one of the organizations whose assets and finances should be traced and blocked worldwide. The onus is on the U.N. to designate Boko Haram as a terrorist group because it was one of the earliest victims," Christian Association of Nigerian-Americans said in a statement Wednesday.
"The U.S., Canada and the United Kingdom have done so; it is incumbent on the U.N. to do it, particularly because part of the members of the U.N. Security Council have lost their citizens to Boko Haram insurgency."
The group also called on the United Nations to repay $30 million the government of Nigeria paid for damage to the Abuja offices. The group said the money should be used to aid Nigerian victims of violence, the Nigerian website the Daily Post reported.
Boko Haram, the popular name for the Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad, operates in northeastern Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon. Its goal is to establish an Islamic state governed by Sharia law.
Gov. Gabriel Suswam of Benue state came under attack Thursday when he visited a village where five people had been killed, Channels Television reported. He was at the village to see the carnage and also met with some of the villagers.
