Nigeria. SUICIDE bomber has killed at least 15 people, 40 injured.

The militant Islamist group Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed at least 15 people at an evangelical church in northern Nigeria.

In a statement e-mailed to journalists Monday, June 4, group spokesman Abul Qaqa said Boko Haram had “successfully launched” the attack. “We thank Allah for giving us victory. We successfully carried out a suicide bombing on a church at Yelwa in Bauchi state,” he said.

The email address was the same the militants always use, but reporters cautioned there was no way to confirm its authenticity.

A suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into the church Sunday, causing the building to collapse and trapping worshipers inside, witnesses said.

The bombing reportedly occurred just as the congregation of Living Faith Church in the Yelwa Tudu area of Bauchi city was leaving a worship service. However, the casualties came primarily from the neighboring church, Harvest Field Church for Christ, which bore the brunt of the explosion, according to Christian rights group Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW).

MANY INJURED

Over 40 people were injured in addition to those killed.

Twelve cars and a number of buildings were also reported to have been destroyed by the blast.

Boko Haram has increasingly focused some of its energies on Christian worshipers, including a Christmas Day bomb just outside the capital that killed 37 people and wounded 57.

Three other bombers carrying explosives were reportedly intercepted on their way to the Church of Christ in Nigeria (COCIN) and Catholic churches in Yelwa Tudu, but were killed by angry crowds that gathered there, rights activists said.

Analysts say the group wants to create divisions between Muslims and Christians in this nation of 160 million people, though there were no reports of massive reprisals yet.

MEN MURDERED

Additionally, reports emerged on Saturday, June 2, of a night attack by armed Fulani tribesmen on Sansun Village in Zangon Kataf Local Government Area (LGA), Southern Kaduna State, in which a man named Matthew Aetung and his son were hacked to death, his wife was critically injured, and his home was razed to the ground, CSW said.

Boko Haram’s also warned media they would be attacked if they write “anything false” about Boko Haram, which means ‘Western Education is a Sin’.

The group also claimed the bombing of pro-government daily This Day in April.

Qaqa accused Nigeria’s security agencies of concealing casualties in their battles with the militant group. The militants are blamed for hundreds of killings in Nigeria since 2009, mostly in the north, where they have ordered Christians to leave the area.

The group says it wants to establish an Islamic state in northern Nigeria and does not recognize the government or the country’s constitution.

TERROR ATTACKS

“Once again we have witnessed terror attacks on innocent civilians who were peaceably expressing their faith, while a family was murdered in their home by armed assailants,” said CSW Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas told BosNewsLife in a statement.

He said his group “reiterates the call for a decisive, intelligence-led strategy to combat the insurgency, and for comprehensive protection of areas that are known to be under threat of ethnic-religious violence.”

The group also claimed the bombing of pro-government daily This Day in April.

Qaqa accused Nigeria’s security agencies of concealing casualties in their battles with the militant group. The militants are blamed for hundreds of killings in Nigeria since 2009, mostly in the north, where they have ordered Christians to leave the area.

The group says it wants to establish an Islamic state in northern Nigeria and does not recognize the government or the country’s constitution.”Once again we have witnessed terror attacks on innocent civilians who were peaceably expressing their faith, while a family was murdered in their home by armed assailants,” said CSW Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas in a statement.

He said his group “reiterates the call for a decisive, intelligence-led strategy to combat the insurgency, and for comprehensive protection of areas that are known to be under threat of ethnic-religious violence.”
(BosNewsLife)