A suicide car bomber attacked a Catholic church conducting Mass in northern Nigeria on Sunday, killing two people and wounding another 45 in a region under assault by a radical Islamist sect, officials said.
Witnesses at the scene in the city of Bauchi said they heard a blast near St John’s Church, possibly in a car park.
The attack took place in Bauchi, which has seen a number of bombings and shootings blamed on Boko Haram (an Islamic sect). The blast appeared to hit a parking lot alongside the St. John’s Catholic Church in the city.
According to the Telegraph, police and military surrounded the church and did not allow journalists inside the cordon.
Later at a nearby hospital, Bauchi Deputy Police Commissioner T. Stevens told journalists that the bomber had been stopped at the church’s gate, where he detonated the explosives packed inside his car.
Doctors cautioned that more could die as a result of injuries.
“The situation has been brought under control,” Stevens said. “We have our men minding all areas.”
Stevens said no group or individual had claimed responsibility for the attack, though suspicion immediately fell on Boko Haram. The sect, whose name means “Western education is sacrilege” in the Hausa language of Nigeria’s north, has been waging an increasingly bloody fight against nation’s weak central government. More than 680 people have died in drive-by killings and bombings blamed on Boko Haram this year alone, according to an AP count. The sect has demanded the release of all its captive members and has called for strict Shariah law to be implemented across the entire country.
The BBC reports that on September 16, Nigerian security forces said they killed Boko Haram’s spokesman Abu Qaqa in a gun battle in the northern state of Kano. However, the group is yet to confirmed his death.
Meanwhile, the military in Yobe state imposed a 24-hour curfew on two cities as soldiers went door-to-door, searching for Boko Haram members.
“Residents of the two cities are to remain indoors until further notice to enable security personnel to fish out Boko Haram terrorists,” a military spokesman told the AFP news agency.
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