This attack, denounced as a “odious murder of faithful” by President Muhammadu Buhari and which was not claimed, occurred during the morning office at the Catholic church St Francis of the city of ‘Owo, in the state of Ondo (South-West).
Le Monde with AFP
An even indeterminate number of people were killed by armed men in a Catholic church in Nigeria during the Pentecost mass on Sunday June 5, Pope Francis deploring the death of “dozens of faithful”.
This massacre intervenes in a region usually spared by jihadists and criminal bands active in other regions of the country. “The pope learned the attack (occurrence) at the church of Ondo, Nigeria, and the death of dozens of faithful, including many children, during the celebration of Pentecost,” said the press service of the press service Vatican in a press release. “While the details of the incident are being clarified, Pope Francis prays for the victims and for the country, painfully affected during a moment of celebration, and confides them to the Lord, so that he sends His spirit to console them “, he added .
a balance sheet to be determined
“It is still early to say exactly how many people have been killed. But many faithful have lost their lives while others were injured in the attack,” said police spokesperson The State, Ibukun Odunlami, at the France-Presse agency. A witness, who only gave his first name, Abayomi, said that at least 20 faithful had perished in the attack. “I was going through the neighborhood when I heard a strong explosion and shots inside the church,” he said.
He said he saw at least five armed men inside the church before fleeing. Ondo State Governor Oluwarotimo Akeredolu called the security forces in his statement to find the attackers after this “ignoble and satanic attack”. According to the spokesperson for the state police, they attacked the church with firearms and explosives.
The attack occurs on the eve of the launch by the APC, the ruling party, of its primaries with a view to the 2023 presidential election to Guign the succession of Muhammadu Buhari, a former army commander who will withdraw after two terms. Security remains a major challenge in the most populous country in Africa and the largest economy on the continent.
Attacks against religious sites are particularly sensitive in Nigeria, where tensions sometimes exacerbate between the communities of a country whose southern is mainly Christian and the mainly Muslim North. This type of attack is however rare in the southwest of the country, relatively peaceful.
The Nigerian army, on the other hand, is confronted with numerous insecurity homes in the rest of the country. A jihadist insurrection has been raging for 12 years in the Northeast, the gangs of pierciers and kidnappers terrorize the North West and Center, and the South-East is the scene of separatist movements.
The jihadist group Boko Haram, present in the northeast of the country, has already targeted churches along a conflict which left 40,000 dead and 2 million displaced in Nigeria.