last supper of chaos, Sunday March 28, in the Indonesian city of Makassar, in South Sulawesi. An explosion took place near the cathedral of the capital of this archipelago province, after Palm Sunday. Several people were injured, according to announcements from local authorities. The latter suspect a bomb to be at the origin of the explosion. But the situation remains unclear for the moment, and the investigation is only just beginning. Provincial police spokesman E. Zulpan told the press that body parts were found at the scene.
“We are investigating whether they belong to attackers or to people nearby. The wounded have been hospitalized, ”he added. Two attackers traveling on motorcycles are suspected of having carried out the attack, potentially suicide. A priest interviewed by local media, for his part, claimed that the attack was committed by a suicide bomber. The explosion occurred when mass had just ended in the Cathedral of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, seat of the Archdiocese of Makassar, in the south of the island of Celebes.
“Two people were riding motorcycles when the explosion occurred at the main gate of the church, the attackers were trying to enter the perimeter of the church,” said national police spokesman Argo Yuwono. “The motorcycle was destroyed and there are body parts. We are still picking up the pieces and trying to identify the gender of the attackers. ”
Churches already targeted in Indonesia
Many vehicles were damaged around the building, around which the police were establishing a security cordon, according to a photographer from Agence France-Presse on the spot. “We had finished mass and people were going home when it happened,” a man described as a priest, identified as Willem, told Metro TV. He claimed that a parishioner tried to prevent what he described as “a suicide bomber” who sought to enter the church. He added that around ten people were injured.
Churches have in the past been the target of extremists in Indonesia, which is the most populous Muslim-majority country in the world. In May 2018, a family of six, including two girls aged 9 and 12 and two sons aged 16 and 18, set off bombs against three churches in Surabaya, the country’s second city, killing more than a dozen. faithful.
A religious coexistence undermined in recent years
The same day a second family detonated, apparently by accident, a bomb in an apartment and the following day a third committed a suicide attack on a police station. These attacks, which left a total of 15 victims and 13 deaths among the attackers, including five children, were the deadliest in more than a decade in the archipelago.
The three radicalized families were linked to the radical movement Jamaah Ansharut Daulah (JAD), which supports the Islamic State (IS) group. And the attacks had been claimed by ISIS. Indonesia’s tradition of tolerance has been put to the test in recent years by a development of conservative, even extremist, Islamic currents, and religious minorities, Christians but also Buddhists and Hindus are worried about religious coexistence.
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