Updated

Nigeria's president has compared the violence by an Islamist extremist sect in his West African nation to the ongoing civil war in Syria.

President Goodluck Jonathan made the comments Sunday before a church in Nigeria's capital, Abuja.

Jonathan said the sect known as Boko Haram "is taking over Abuja (and wants) for me and those working in government to run and hide somewhere else."

Jonathan also told worshippers at the church that the violence around the world made him wonder if this is a "way of telling us that the end times are so close."

According to an Associated Press count, Boko Haram has killed more than 780 people this year alone in Nigeria. The killings continue despite soldiers and police flooding the nation's north.