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Nigeria: 21 dead The first official report of a church attack

Twenty-one people were killed Sunday in an armed attack on a Catholic church during a service in southwestern Nigeria, according to the first official report released today by local authorities.

“Dynamite exploded in the church (…) the perpetrators did not enter the church, they shot (against the faithful) from the windows,” said Richard Olandude, a spokesman for the Odo state governor.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, which Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari described as “a heinous murder of worshipers”.

It occurred during the morning service at St. Francis Catholic Church in Ouo, Odo, where there are usually no attacks by jihadists and armed groups operating in other parts of Nigeria.

Local authorities announced that security forces have mobilized and are looking for the perpetrators, whose identities are not known.

The attack came a day before the ruling APC primary for the 2023 presidential election. Buhari, a former general, will complete his second term in February 2023.

Security remains a major challenge in Africa’s most populous country and the continent’s largest economy.

Attacks on religious sites are a particularly sensitive issue in Nigeria, where tensions often escalate between communities in a predominantly Christian country in the south and predominantly Muslim in the north.

Source: AMPE

Source: Capital

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