At least twenty-one dead, including children. This is the provisional balance sheet after the attack, Sunday, June 5, against a Catholic church in the southwest of the country. The attackers detonated dynamite in the church and opened fire from outside the building through the windows. In recent hours, human remains and pools of blood still litter the floor of the religious building, testifying to the violence of the massacre perpetrated by at least five men who fled, without any armed group claiming for the moment the attack.
Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari talks about heinous killings. In Rome, the Vatican only indicates that Pope Francis is praying for the victims. This attack targeted faithful Catholics gathered for Pentecost. It follows a long series of crimes against Christians in Nigeria, in a country divided between two religions, where the practice of Islam has been progressing for years. This fault line often corresponds to ethnic rivalries. Today, about a third of Nigeria’s thirty-six states officially apply Sharia law alongside common law.
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Mobs of Muslims regularly attack Christians. Last month, a Christian student in the town of Sokoto was tortured by young Muslims from the local university who stoned her to death, after accusing her of blasphemy.
The killers acted as the ruling party, the All Progessive Congress, prepares to launch primaries for the 2023 presidential election. The head of state, who will complete his second term in nine months, did not failed to put an end to the violence in the country. To put an end to killings, kidnappings and rapes linked to inter-religious, inter-ethnic or mafia reasons. The motivations of criminal gangs are sometimes closely intertwined
The Ondo area where the church was attacked on Sunday is generally unspoilt. Most of the clashes take place in the rest of the country. In northeastern Nigeria, the Islamist group Boko Haram reigns terror while the other regions of the country are subject to gangs or separatist movements. A worsening chaos in the most populous country in Africa and whose population could double by 2050 to reach 440 million.