The feast of Pentecost was hit in Nigeria by a bloody attack in a church perpetrated by Muslims. This happened in Ondo State, in the southwest of the country. Mass was being celebrated in the Catholic Church of San Francesco in the town of Owo when gunmen burst in, shooting and throwing explosives. There is still no certain news, but there is talk of a very high number of dead and injured, including many children. According to the testimony of a doctor, at least 50 bodies were transported to two hospitals in the city. On hearing of the massacre, the state governor, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, who was then in the federal capital Abuja, immediately returned to his headquarters.
For some time, violence in Nigeria has spread virtually unchallenged and in recent years the situation has deteriorated almost everywhere in the country: in the northeast, where the jihadist groups Boko Haram and Iswap carry out bombings and attacks to impose Islamic law and drive Christians away; in the central regions, where armed clashes between herders and farmers are increasingly bloody and frequent; in the northwest and south, where armed gangs carry out continuous kidnappings for the purpose of extortion and do not even spare the clerics.
Yesterday’s attack has yet to be claimed. It could be a failed kidnapping attempt and then it should come as no surprise that the criminals committed such a massacre to commit it. Last March, armed men attacked the train that connects the federal capital, Abuja, to Kaduna, the capital of the homonymous state. They abducted an unknown number of people and killed nine, whose bodies were found, or possibly more since many people are still missing.
This attack could also be a possible response by the Fulani against the governor of Odo State. “With the merger between Boko Haram and Muslim pastors, Christians are being targeted in the south of the country,” explains Aid to the Church in Need, a pontifical foundation that deals with supporting persecuted Christians.
According to analysts, the cooperation between the Islamist militiamen of Boko Haram who sow terror in the north of the country and the nomadic herders, the Fulani, in conflict with the permanent population for the conquest of land to be used for grazing, has exported the anti-Christian violence even outside the traditional range of action of Islamic terrorists.
Local representatives, like Adeyemi Olayemi, do not doubt that radicalized herders are responsible for the massacre. Behind, according to the member of the Chamber of the State Assembly of Ondo, there would be “reprisals” against the governor of the state, Rotimi Akeredolu, who ousted the group from the area. Even Afenifere, a local organization linked to the Yoruba ethnicity, has no doubt that the attack was directed against the governor “for his unwavering support for security” and “strict adherence to the law on open pastures”.
According to the accounts of witnesses, reported by local newspapers, the assailants, at least five, would have arrived around noon, aboard a Golf. They parked in front of the church and entered the building a few minutes before the end of the mass. They merge with the worshippers, then throw a bomb into the main nave and open fire for over 15 minutes. The parish priest, Father Andrew Abayomi, managed to hide with other people until the terrorists moved away. Once back in the church, they found themselves in front of a lake of blood. On the ground lay the bodies of men, women and children, mown down as they were gathered in prayer. “It looked like a scene from a movie,” one of the victims told the Nigerian newspaper. Vanguard.
At least 25 people are believed to have died instantly. Those who were still breathing were loaded onto the vans and taken to the Federal Medical Center in Owo. The death toll is still uncertain. We are talking about 35 people, but that could go up in the next few hours. President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the massacre.
“This country, he said, will never yield to evil and darkness will never triumph over light. »
But the authorities are accused of once again failing to provide security. For months, in fact, massacres in villages and kidnappings for ransom have been increasing in the country. “The government should assume its primary responsibility to protect the lives and property of its citizens. The world is watching! urges Monsignor Lucius Ugorji, president of the Episcopal Conference of Nigeria. Otherwise, the risk is that “the fall of the country into anarchy” is accelerating.
For the bishop of the diocese of Ondo, Jude Arogundade, on the other hand, Nigeria would already be, for all intents and purposes, a country in conflict. The aim of the attackers, according to the prelate, was to cause as many victims as possible:
“Those trying to flee outside were hit from the outside and those inside were hit from the inside. »
Then the attackers blew up the altar with dynamite.
“What the world needs to know, the Bishop said, is that Nigeria is at war and this war is against civilians. »
Alessandro Monteduro, director of Aid to the Church in Need, agrees:
“This is not just an attack on Christians, but it is an attack on the very weak and ultra-corrupt state and institutions of Nigeria. »
“In the country, he explains on the telephone on a daily basis Il Giornale.it, Christians represent almost half of the population, attacking them means attacking the secularism of institutions to impose its own extremist vision. »
In the sights, therefore, according to Monteduro, there are all those communities that do not give in to violence and radicalism. At the top of the list are Christians. But there is also room for moderate Muslims or students. “It is no coincidence that over the past two years, he reveals, there have been many kidnappings of university students who attend science faculties. Literally Boko Haram means ‘Western education is a sin’. Behind these massacres, there is therefore the will to attack Western culture and to impose obscurantism. »
The confrontation between shepherds and peasants has always existed in Nigeria. But in recent years, there has been a qualitative leap, both for the flow of heavy weapons from destabilized Libya, and for the collaboration established by Fulani Muslim herders with the Jihad soldiers active in the north of the country.
“It is for this reason, explains Monteduro, that Christians are now under fire even in traditionally safe states. »
In Africa, Islam kills Christians in the indifference of Western ‘elites’ who are quicker to sneer at the slightest criticism of this religion of ‘love’.
Francesca Villasmundo
