Nigeria: Church Targeted in Bomb Attack

By NewsfromAfrica

JOS---At least 10 people have died in a suicide car bomb attack on a catholic church and the retaliatory violence that followed in violence-ridden central Nigeria’s city of Jos on Sunday, officials have said. The blast went off as worshippers were preparing to attend the final mass of the day at St. Finbar’s Catholic Church in the Rayfield area of Jos. The suicide bombers are said to have detonated the explosives upon they refused to open the boot of their car during a security check-up at the gate of the church.

The bombing sparked reprisal attacks against Muslims in the city later in the day, with angry protestors burning down homes and shops. Soldiers guarding on standby guard are said to have opened fire to disperse the protestors in the city’s neighbourhood, according to witnesses.

Spokesman of the Plateau State where Jos is located, Pam Ayuba told the Associated Press news agency that the blast damaged the roof of the church, blew out its windows and also part of the perimeter wall.

Rev Peter Umoren the parish priest recalled moments of the blast said it came just ten minutes into the mass. “I heard these blasts... and there was this chaos and the people were finding their way out of the church," he said.

President Goodluck Jonathan has condemned the weekend bomb attack and called on people to remain patient and refrain from any acts of taking matters into their own hands, such as reprisal attack.

No group so far has claimed responsibility of the attack but the Islamic sect Boko Haram which has claimed similar series of attacks in the city and in others in northern Nigeria is largely speculated to be behind it.

The sect was behind the last year’s Christmas bombing that left scores dead, recent most attack being one on headquarters of the Church of Christ in February 26, that left three dead and 38 others wounded.

Plateau state whose capital is Jos, lies in the middle belt region that separate the predominantly Muslim north from the mainly Christian and animists
south. Hundreds of people have died in clashes between the Muslim and Christian ethnic groups in the region with over 1000 lives claimed since 2009, including more than 300 this year.

Boko Haram which is loosely modelled on Afghanistan’s Taliban, fights to instill Islamic state in mainly the Muslim north and has mainly targeted
police installations and churches in the region.