By Paul Jongas, BosNewsLife Special Correspondent reporting from Nigeria
ABUJA, NIGERIA (BosNewsLife)– A Catholic Church was bombed in Nigeria’s troubled northern Kano state, killing five people while injuring eight people, including police, Christians said Sunday, July 27.
A powerful bomb reportedly rocked the the Charles Catholic Church in the ancient city of Kano, shortly after Mass, said police spokesman Frank Mba and witnesses in published remarks.
The news came while Christians also fled the city of Damboa in northeastern Borno state as Islamic militants took over the area, hoisting their flags over several buildings.
“Many Christians were gunned down and some slaughtered,” witnesses said. No exact death toll of the violence in Borno state was immediately available.
The bombing at the Catholic church in Kano “killed five people and injured eight” police said. A soldier assigned to guard the premises of the church was reportedly among the dead.
THIRD ATTACK
Sunday’s church attack was the third terrorist incident in Kano in recent weeks. Two previous attempts to attack a mosque and a university were thwarted by the police in the city.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but local Christians and authorities have blamed Boko Haram, or ‘Western education is sinfull’, which wants to establish a strict Islamic state.
Violence also spread towards neighboring Cameroon where Boko Haram militants kidnapped the wife of Cameroon’s vice prime minister and killed at least three people on Sunday, July 27, in a cross-border attack involving more than 200 assailants in the northern town of Kolofata, Cameroon officials said.
“I can confirm that the home of Vice-Prime Minister Amadou Ali in Kolofata came under a savage attack from Boko Haram militants,” said government spokesman Issa Tchiroma, who is also communications minister in a statement.
CAMEROON VIOLENCE
Boko Haram has also been linked to other kidnappings and the group still detains some 200 Christian schoolgirls who were abducted in April in northeastern Nigeria and were since forced to embrace Islam.
The Sunday attack in Cameroon was the third such incident since Friday, July 26. At least four soldiers were killed in the two previous Boko Haram-linked attacks, news reports said.
On Friday, July 26, some 22 suspected militants of the group held in Cameroon’s northern hub of Maroua since March were reportedly sentenced to prison sentences ranging from 10 to 20 years.
It was not immediately clear whether the attacks were related to the sentencing of the militants.
(Paul Jongas is also working as an evangelist. If you want to support him write to pauljongas @ yahoo.com )
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