The United Nations on Wednesday urged President Goodluck Jonathan and the Nigerian security agencies to find all the means to end the killings and violence in the country.

Speaking in a statement made available to LEADERSHIP’s correspondent in New York, the head of the United Nations Office for West Africa (UNOWA), Mr. Said Djinnit, stated that the world body was seriously concerned about the escalation of acts of terrorism in north-eastern Nigeria, including along the border with Cameroon.

The United Nations official also condemned the latest wave of “unspeakable” violence in the region and demanded an end to attacks targeting innocent civilians.

Djinnit pressed further that the unprecedented cycle of violence in Nigeria must stop, stressing that the people of Nigeria deserved to live in peace and security. He also deplored the recent killings of some 80 people by unidentified armed groups in Maiduguri, Mainok and Mafa villages in Borno State.

In his statement on the more renewed violence, Mr. Djinnit, who is also Special Representative of the Secretary-General for West Africa, said the recent attacks, a series of deadly car bombings, according to media reports, which resulted in the death of more than 80 people, were further unspeakable violence against innocent civilians who he claimed had been regularly targeted by indiscriminate terrorist attacks.

Expressing condolences to the bereaved families and to the people and the government of Nigeria, he reiterated the need to protect civilians and expressed the hope that the perpetrators of the attacks would be brought to justice.

It would be recalled that Borno, along with Nigeria’s northern states of Adamawa and Yobe, have been under states of emergency since May 2013 as the army fights  Boko Haram insurgents.