A group of gunmen attacked a Catholic church in the southwestern Nigerian city of Owo on Sunday, shooting at worshipers and detonating explosives. The death toll has not yet been determined according to authorities, but media outlets point to at least 50 fatalities.
The attack took place during morning mass at the San Francisco Catholic Church in Owo, Ondo state, a region where such attacks are infrequent.
“It is still too early to say how many people died. But many worshipers lost their lives and others were injured,” said Ibukun Odunlami, a police spokesman in the Ondo region.
A witness who was passing by at the time of the attack said he heard explosions and gunshots and that at least 20 people were killed. A doctor told Reuters news agency that at least 50 bodies had been taken to two hospitals in the city as a result of the attack.
Local media say that, in addition to shooting at worshipers, the gunmen also detonated explosives, leaving at least 50 people dead.
The identity of those responsible and the motivation for the attack, described by Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, as a “heinous” act are not yet known.
“It is sad that, while Holy Mass was taking place, gunmen attacked the Catholic Church of San Francisco, leaving people dead and others injured,” said Catholic Church Nigeria spokesman Rev. Augustine Ikwu. He said the bishop and parish priests managed to emerge unscathed from the attack.
Pope Francis is praying for the victims, who were “painfully hit in a time of celebration”, the Vatican said on Sunday in a statement, which said the pope was informed of the attack and was waiting to receive more details.
In the southwest of the country, attacks like this are rare. Ondo state governor Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu interrupted a trip to the capital Abuja and returned to Ondo after the act. “We will use all available resources to find those responsible and make them pay,” he said in a statement.
Nigeria has been fighting a jihadist insurgency in the northeast of the country for more than a decade. In addition, it also faces gangs carrying out mass kidnappings in the northwest and separatist groups operating in the southeast.
In April this year, the Nigerian Air Force claimed to have killed or seriously injured around 70 Iswap (Islamic State in West Africa) terrorists in an operation in the Lake Chad region, close to the northern border with Niger. .
The Lake Chad region is known for being a haven for Iswap guerrillas, which has been active since 2016. Along with rival group Boko Haram, the two factions have murdered more than 40,000 people in the last decade in violent acts that led to displacement. of 2 million people. As of last year, Iswap has controlled most of the region after Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau died.
Another problem plaguing the country is mass kidnappings, which began with episodes led by Boko Haram, a group operating in Nigeria since 2009, whose name, in the local language, means “Western education is a sin”, and has a history of transforming their captives into jihadist fighters.
However, today the practice has become common in Nigeria, and experts point to the existence of an industry in which criminals profit from the collection of ransoms.
According to a study by the Nigerian consultancy SBM Intelligence, the payment of ransoms between June 2011 and March 2020 generated by kidnappings moved at least US$ 18.34 million (about R$ 87.9 million).
