NIGERIA: Gunmen opened fire on a church service killing six people and wounding 10, the latest in a string of attacks that has raised fears of sectarian conflict in Africa's most populous nation

Record ID: 235437

  • Title: NIGERIA: Gunmen opened fire on a church service killing six people and wounding 10, the latest in a string of attacks that has raised fears of sectarian conflict in Africa's most populous nation
  • Date: 7th January 2012
  • Summary: GOMBE, NIGERIA (JANUARY 06, 2011) (REUTERS) CHURCH BUILDING IN GOMBE STATE SIGN READING: DEEPER LIFE BIBLE CHURCH, COME BELIEVE AND RECEIVE. VARIOUS OF CHURCH BUILDING EXTERIORS VARIOUS OF BULLET HOLE CHURCH BUILDING
  • Embargoed: 22nd January 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria, Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA64UB9DWCHXMSM2XL5JYC3WC5W
  • Story Text: Gunmen opened fire on a church service in Nigeria on Thursday (January 5), killing six people and wounding 10, the latest in a string of attacks that has raised fears of sectarian conflict in Africa's most populous nation.
    The pastor of the Deeper Life Bible Church in Gombe, in northern Nigeria, told Reuters by phone that the attackers started shooting sporadically. They shot through the window of the church, and many people were killed including his wife.
    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.
    The militant group also claimed responsibility for a series of bomb attacks across Nigeria on Christmas Day, including one at a church near the capital Abuja that killed at least 37 people and wounded 57.
    President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the northeast and two other regions in Nigeria on Dec. 31, in a bid to contain a growing insurgency by Boko Haram, which says it wants to apply Islamic sharia law across Nigeria.
    Heavily armed troops and tanks have been patrolling parts of northeast Nigeria since Jonathan made the announcement.
    The attacks targeting Christian houses of worship have strained Nigeria's increasingly fractious north-south divide.
    Christian associations have accused Jonathan of not doing enough to contain the Islamist threat and said violence could provoke a sectarian civil war.
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