Benue State is in Nigeria’s Middle Belt. This region, a hotbed of sectarian unrest, has suffered particularly because of clashes between largely Muslim Fulani cattle herders and mostly Christian farming communities.

Using pastoral letters and circulars with exhortations on civic duty, as well as pulpit and parish bulletin announcements, the church has been informing voters on the importance of exercising their right to vote.

Christian and Muslim leaders in the Central African Republic have accused foreign states of complicity in a May 1 gun and grenade attack on a Catholic Mass.

Bishop Gassis' visits came in the middle of decades of on-again, off-again fighting between the central government and several rebel movements in the South and other peripheral areas of the country.

In April scores have died in a series of attacks and assassinations in Mexico, the Philippines and Nigeria. Catholics at prayer during Mass have been targeted in a number of attacks.

Public rallies have been banned since September 2016, when dozens of demonstrators were killed.