The attack took place during morning mass in the church of San Francisco in the town of Owo, located in the southwest of the country
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Nigerian Army soldiers in the north of the country fighting Boko Haram and Islamic State. ARMED FORCES OF NIGERIA
Dozens of people were killed in an attack this Sunday morning against a Catholic church in Ondo state, in southwestern Nigeria, confirmed to Ephpolice. The first reports speak of at least 50 dead.
“More than two dozen died according to what an emergency agency told us. We are working on the exact number and we will share the details as soon as possible,” the spokesman for the State Police, Funmilayo Odunlami, told Efe by telephone.
According to Odunlami, the security forces are trying to find out if the attack was carried out by armed men or by explosives.
“I am deeply saddened by the unprovoked attack and murder of innocent people in (the town of) Owo, while praying at St Francis Catholic Church today,” Ondo Governor Rotimi Akeredolu said on Twitter.
A A worker at the federal hospital in Owo told the local newspaper The Punch that more than 50 people had been taken to hospital after the attack, perpetrated during Sunday mass.
“They continue to bring people to the hospital, some of them have been confirmed dead and others are still breathing but, at the moment, I cannot specify the number of deaths” , said the professional of the medical center.
However, as medical sources confirmed to the Nigerian Tribune portal, the death toll is at least 50.
EPA/STR
One of the A parishioner, Kehinde Ogunkorode, explained to the Nigerian newspaper Vanguard that the attack was carried out by at least five individuals and that there are children and women among those killed.
“They invaded the church and started shooting,” said Ogunkorode, coinciding with the account of other witnesses from the British network affiliate BBC, who confirmed that attackers opened fire indiscriminately against the attendees before kidnapping a priest and other parishioners.
Furthermore, Ogunkorode confirmed that The attackers detonated an explosive inside the church during the kidnapping of the priest, and shot passers-by who were in the vicinity before and after the assault. This is the first attack on a Catholic church in the south of the country, where the population is predominantly Christian.
Nigeria suffers from relentless attacks by bandits and mass kidnappings for lucrative ransoms< /b>, but these usually occur in the center and northwest of the country, which makes this incident in the southwest of the country strange.
Recently, the southeast of the country has also been the scene of serious kidnappings and murders that the authorities attribute to the separatists of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a group that advocates the secession of that territory.
< p class=”paragraph”>Added to this insecurity is the jihadist threat that has plagued the northeast of the country since 2009, caused by the Boko Haram group and, since 2015, its faction ISWAP (Islamic State in the West African Province).
(With information from EFE and Europa Press)