NIGERIA: Patients wounded during an attack on a church service on Thursday are treated at the medical centre in Gombe

Record ID: 235436

  • Title: NIGERIA: Patients wounded during an attack on a church service on Thursday are treated at the medical centre in Gombe
  • Date: 7th January 2012
  • Summary: GOMBE, NIGERIA (JANUARY 6, 2012) (ORIGINALLY 4:3) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF ENTRANCE TO FEDERAL MEDICAL CENTRE, GOMBE VARIOUS OF PATIENTS ON HOSPITAL BEDS VARIOUS OF MEDICAL WORKER ATTENDING TO PATIENT SISTER FELICIA SILAS, MOTHER OF TWO VICTIMS, SITTING DOWN, OTHER WOMEN COMFORTING HER SISTER FELICIA SILAS WEEPING (SOUNDBITE) (English) MOTHER OF TWO VICTIMS, SISTER FELICIA SILAS, SAYING: "I was the first person that entered, [the scene of the killings] my son was telling me to go and look for a car, he had been shot in his two legs. I ran to check my other son but he was already dead." RELATIVE OF VICTIM WITH TEARS IN HER EYES
  • Embargoed: 22nd January 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria, Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVACDK5CYAU2QZJY5J1NZMIX9B5P
  • Story Text: People wounded in an attack on a church service were treated at the Federal Medical Centre in Gombe, Nigeria on Friday (January 6, 2012).
    The attack took place on Thursday (January 5, 2012). Gunmen opened fire on a church service, killing six people and wounding 10, the church's pastor said, the latest in a string of attacks that has raised fears of sectarian conflict in Africa's most populous nation.
    Sister Felicia Silas lost two sons in the shooting.
    "I was the first person that entered, [the scene of the killings] my son was telling me to go and look for a car, he had been shot in his two legs. I ran to check my other son but he was already dead," she said.
    The gun attack followed a warning from violent Islamist sect Boko Haram published in local newspapers on Tuesday (January 3) that Christians had three days to leave majority Muslim northern Nigeria or they would be killed.
    Analysts say it looks increasingly likely the group - or factions within it - wants to trigger reprisals from Christians against Muslims to bring on a full religious conflict.
    The nation of 160 million is split roughly evenly between the two faiths.
    Most Christians live in the south and most Muslims in the north, but many communities are mixed, and they usually live side by side in peace.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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