Nigeria is passing through “the darkest chapter of our history as a nation,” according to Archbishop Lucius Iwejuru Ugorji of Owerri, the president of the country’s episcopal conference.

In his address to the plenary assembly of the country’s bishops, Archbishop Ugorji cited poverty and unemployment, inflation and debt, but above all the breakdown in security in Nigeria, due to “the ungodly activities of insurgents, bandits, militant herdsmen, unknown gunmen, kidnappers and trigger-happy security agents.”