New Attacks Against Nigerian Catholic Churches

Men with AK47s attack during Sunday Mass.

At least one person died and several others were injured in an attack against a Catholic church in the Nigerian village of Ungwar Poppo, in Kachia Local Government Area in the State of Kaduna.

Men with AK47s attacked the place of worship while the faithful were gathered to celebrate Mass Sunday morning, firing indiscriminately, killing a guard in charge of protecting the church and wounding several people, some seriously.

The attackers are Fulani herdsmen, who in recent months have carried out several attacks against certain communities in the area. The traditional clash between Muslim herders and Christian farmers seems to have made a quantum leap since the Fulani have exhibited having sophisticated weapons, obtained perhaps, by the Islamist Boko Haram sect.

Meanwhile, Boko Haram has intensified its attacks and suicide bombings in different areas of Nigeria, also against Christian places of worship. On Sunday, July 27 a female suicide bomber blew herself up in the parish of St. Charles Kano.

"The girl must have been 17-18 years of age," Father Valentin, of the Society of African Missions, told Fides. "The soldiers who protect the church had stopped her at the entrance, because they wondered why she was covered from head to toe, and then the bomb she was hiding exploded. In addition to the female suicide bomber, four other people were killed and 70 were injured. I took some of the wounded to the hospital. Unfortunately, three patients subsequently died."