“Hundreds” of motorcycle-riding, gun-toting Boko Haram fighters launched a brazen daytime attack on Maiduguri, one of northern Nigeria’s biggest cities today.

More than 150 Nigerians died to Islamist militants and government forces last week. The campaign against Boko Haram is growing more violent daily, and there is a real danger that it will spread beyond northern Nigeria.

The evidence is mounting that the vicious torture and murder of Christians in the Central African Republic may have had backing from government in Chad. The CAR isn’t the only place in Africa where religious violence occurs almost daily. Today, the Nigerian army blamed the jihadist group Boko Haram for bombing a market place in Maiduguri. The MSM would rather not talk about the God Wars in Africa, but this continues to emerge as the biggest story south of the Sahara.

Compliers of a new persecution watch-list found that Christian deaths due to religious violence doubled last year, and the prospects for this year don’t look any better. A recent UN report puts the CAR in an especially alarming light. According to the NBC news, UN officials are now saying, “this is Darfur, plus anarchy.” The public discussion about the CAR—and other places on the Open Doors list—has been comparatively restrained, even though the threat that some of these conflicts could spiral into genocide is very real.

Despite the recent arrival of French troops, there appears to be no end in sight for the violence sweeping CAR or the underlying issues—poor governance, corruption, religious divides, a badly struggling economy—driving it.

Boko Haram militants attacked an army installation in a northern Nigerian city yesterday. Civilians say hundreds of militants took part in the attack and that helicopters and planes were destroyed, and an army barracks completely leveled. There are not yet any reliable reports on casualties. One thing is for certain: Boko Haram is far from vanquished.