According to the 'Situation Report on the activities of Boko Haram in the Catholic Diocese of Maiduguri', up to 85 per cent of the diocese, in the north-east of Nigeria, is currently controlled by Boko Haram. The Islamist group began its insurgency in 2009, and has been largely active in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states, all of which fall within the Maiduguri constituency.
The report states that at least 100,000 Catholics in the area have been displaced, and more than 350 churches have been attacked. Some 7,000 women in the diocese are now widowed, and nearly 10,000 children orphaned by the violence, which has spread to neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger.
Obtained by Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), the report also reveals that over half of the diocese's 40 parish centres and chaplaincy centres have been abandoned by the faithful, and several are now occupied by Boko Haram militants. Four of five convents have also been closed.
"People are very scared and those who are able to return home find there is nothing left," Father Gideon Obasogie, director of social communications in the diocese, told ACN.
"A life lived with much fear is terrible..."