Special to USAfricaonline.com, the USAfrica-powered e-groups of Nigeria360, IgboEvents, UNNalumni, and CLASSmagazine Houston. Follow us at Facebook.com/USAfricaChido and Twitter.com/Chido247
Multiple suicide attacks on churches in northern Nigeria’s Kaduna state and subsequent rioting by Christian youths targeting Muslims killed at least 36 people on Sunday, officials said.
Police said 16 people died after blasts at three churches, while a Red Cross official in Kaduna city told AFP that aid workers “so far have recovered over 20 bodies” of people killed by rioters. Most were “burned beyond recognition,” he added.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bloodshed but the attacks were likely to be blamed on Boko Haram, an extremist group bent on creating an Islamic state and responsible for scores of recent attacks.
Two churches were attacked in the city of Zaria and one in Kaduna City, killing at least 16 people, according to a police statement. Explosions were also reported in Nassarawa and Barnawa.
After news of the blasts spread, Christian youths took to the streets of the main motorway that connects Kaduna City to Nigeria’s capital Abuja, attacking motorists who looked Muslim.
An AFP reporter said he saw the bodies of 10 people killed by the rioters being taken to the morgue.
Kaduna state authorities immediately imposed a 24-hour curfew.
The blasts happened in the Wusasa and Sabongari districts of Zaria at the Christ the King Catholic Cathedral and ECWA GoodNews Church, residents and NEMA said.
“A total of 16 persons have so far been confirmed as a result of the explosions within the three churches,” police said in a statement.
Several residents in Sabongari said the Catholic church was badly damaged by the blast.
“I went close to the church but could not access it due to heavy police and military security deployed around it,” resident Mahmud Hamza told AFP.
“From where I stood I could see a badly destroyed church still burning from the explosion. It is obvious there were deaths from the scale of the damage and the fire,” he added.
Another resident spoke of bodies being taken out.
Residents of Wusasa district spoke of many injuries but could not confirm any deaths at the ECWA GoodNews Church. “Many people in the church were injured but I have not seen any dead bodies,” a woman who was in the church in Wusasa at the time of the explosion said by telephone from her hospital bed.
NEMA officials said the third attack hit the Sharon Church in Kaduna city and that there were two other bombings in the Christian-dominated towns in the south of the state.
Emergency officials reported attacks in Nassarawa and Barnawa in the south of the same state but police did not confirm them and the targets remained unclear.
Southern Kaduna is some four kilometres (three miles) from Kaduna city and about two hours by car from Zaria. The bomb blasts triggered violent protesting by Christian youth mobs, who barricaded roads in the towns of Trijania, Gonin Gora and Sabon Tasha, attacking motorists who looked Muslim. “I cancelled my trip to Abuja because of the huge number of rioters that have taken over the roads,” one man told AFP.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attacks, the latest in Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer, by the church blasts resembled those previously claimed by Boko Haram.
The Islamist group claimed a suicide bombing at a church in Bauchi State that killed at least 15 earlier this month. The group is responsible for more than 1,000 deaths since mid-2009. ref– AFP
Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfrica, USAfricaonline.com and the Nigeria360 e-group. https://usafricaonline.com/2011/12/17/nigeria-federal-republic-of-insecurity-by-chido-nwangwu/ : IF any of the Nigerian President’s 100 advisers has the polite courage for the extraordinary task of reminding His Excellency of his foremost, sworn, constitutional obligation to the national interest about security and safety of Nigerians and all who sojourn in Nigeria, please whisper clearly to Mr. President that I said, respectfully: Nigerians, at home and abroad, are still concerned and afraid for living in what I call Nigeria’s Federal Republic of Insecurity. FULL text of commentary at USAfricaonline.com https://usafricaonline.com/2011/12/17/nigeria-federal-republic-of-insecurity-by-chido-nwangwu/
Related insight: USAfrica’s October 17, 2001 special report/alert: Nigeria’s bin-Laden cheerleaders could ignite religious war, destabilize Africa. By USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu. https://usafricaonline.com/chido.binladennigeria.html
https://usafricaonline.com/tag/al-qaeda/
Related and prior reporting on the Jos crises on USAfrica, click here: https://usafricaonline.com/2011/08/16/10-killed-in-renewed-violence-near-jos/
News archives related to Jos, here https://usafricaonline.com/?s=jos
310 killed by Nigeria’s ‘talibans’ in Bauchi, Yobe n Maiduguri; crises escalate. USAfricaonline.com on July 28, 2009. www.usafricaonline.com/chido.ngrtalibans09.html
http://www.groundreport.com/World/310-killed-by-Nigerias-talibans-in-Bauchi-Yobe-n-M/2904584
Trump looks foolish and crazy screaming about Obama’s birth certificates, college records and Muslim connection. By Raynard Jackson
• Nigeria’s bin-Laden cheerleaders could ignite religious war, destabilize Africa. By USAfrica’s Publisher Chido Nwangwu. https://usafricaonline.com/chido.binladennigeria.html
https://usafricaonline.com/tag/al-qaeda/
310 killed by Nigeria’s ‘talibans’ in Bauchi, Yobe n Maiduguri; crises escalate. USAfricaonline.com on July 28, 2009.
www.usafricaonline.com/chido.ngrtalibans09.html
http://www.groundreport.com/World/310-killed-by-Nigerias-talibans-in-Bauchi-Yobe-n-M/2904584
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USAfrica: As Egypt’s corrupter-in-chief Mubarak slides into history’s dustbin. By Chido Nwangwu. https://usafricaonline.com/2011/01/30/chido-nwangwu-as-egypt-corrupter-in-chief-mubarak-slides-into-historys-dustbin-egyptians-not-waiting-for-obama-and-united-nations/
Tunisia, Egypt . . . Is Nigeria next? By Prof. Rosaire Ifedi https://usafricaonline.com/2011/02/13/tunisia-egypt-is-nigeria-next-by-prof-rosaire-ifedi/
Why Chinua Achebe, the Eagle on the Iroko, is Africa’s writer of the century. By Chido Nwangwu, Publisher of USAfrica, and first African-owned, U.S-based newspaper published on the internet USAfricaonline.com https://usafricaonline.com/chido.achebebest.html
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VIDEO of the CNN International broadcast/profile of USAfrica and CLASSmagazine Publisher Chido Nwangwu. http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2010/07/29/mpa.african.media.bk.a.cnn
In the light of an icon, my mentor Stanley Macebuh (1942-2010). By Chido Nwangwu https://usafricaonline.com/2011/03/07/stanley-macebuh-tribute-by-chido-nwangwu/
