Attackers with explosives stormed a Catholic church and opened fire in southwest Nigeria on Sunday, killing “many” worshipers and wounding others, the government and police said.
The violence at St Francis Catholic Church in Owo town in Ondo State erupted during the morning service in a rare attack in the southwest of Nigeria, where extremists and criminal gangs operate in other regions.
Pope Francis said in a statement he had learned of the “death of dozens of faithful,” many children, during the celebration of the Christian holiday of Pentecost.
Photo: Reuters
“While the details of the incident are being clarified, Pope Francis prays for the victims and for the country,” he said.
No group claimed responsibility for the attack.
The motives and the exact death toll were not immediately clear, but Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the “heinous killing of worshipers.”
Photo: AP
Ondo Police Force spokeswoman Ibukun Odunlami said the armed attackers also used explosives, leaving an unknown number of worshipers dead.
“It’s still premature to say exactly how many people were killed, but many worshipers lost their lives while others were injured in the attack,” she said.
A spokesman for the Ondo State governor’s office said they would not be giving an official casualty figure for the moment.
However, a witness, who gave his name as Abayomi, told reporters that at least 20 worshipers had died.
“I was passing through the area when I heard a loud explosion and gunshots inside the church,” he said, adding that he saw at least five gunmen on the church premises before he ran for safety.
Attacks on religious sites are particularly sensitive in Nigeria, where tensions sometimes flare between communities in a country with a mostly Christian south and a predominantly Muslim north.
Gun and bomb attacks are rare in Ondo State, but Nigeria’s military is battling a 12-year-old extremist insurgency in the northeast, gangs in the northwest and separatist agitation in the southeast.
Boko Haram in the northeast targeted churches in the past as part of Nigeria’s conflict that has killed 40,000 and displaced 2 million more.
Kidnapping assaults are common in most parts of Nigeria, but mass gun attacks such as Sunday’s violence are rare in the country’s relatively peaceful southwest.
Ondo Governor Rotimi Akeredolu said that Sunday’s attack was a “vile and satanic attack” and appealed to the security forces to track down the assailants.
The attack comes a day before the ruling APC party starts primaries for its candidate in next year’s election to replace Buhari, a former army commander who steps down after two terms in office.
Security is to be a challenge for whoever wins the race to govern Africa’s most populous country and the continent’s largest economy.
Parts of northwest and north-central Nigeria in particular have been increasingly plagued by heavily armed gangs who raid villages, and target communities and schools for mass kidnapping attacks.
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