Islamist militants make a bloody Christmas
How much longer will we tolerate this?
(Hat Tip to Christian Writer Kerri Lauterbach)
CHRISTMAS celebrations were wrecked for a second year running in Nigeria when a radical Islamist sect detonated bombs that killed up to 40 people and injured dozens more. Boko Haram, which has been behind almost daily killings in northern Nigeria this year, claimed responsibility for several lethal bombings on December 25th, three targeting churches heaving with worshippers for Christmas services. The deadliest strike hit St Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madalla, a satellite town about 40 km from the capital, Abuja. In December last year Boko Haram claimed responsibility for bombings on Christmas Eve in Jos, which stoked violent clashes that subsequently killed over 80 people.
Boko Haram, which means “Western education is sinful”, is demanding the wider application of sharia law in Nigeria. It used to be largely confined to north-eastern Nigeria, but lately has been growing in ambition and capability. The Christmas bombings were preceded by a suicide attack on the UN headquarters in Abuja in August, which killed 24 people.
Hours after the first attack in Madalla, a bomb rocked the Mountain of Fire and Miracles church in Jos, the ethnic and religious fault-line which divides the mainly Muslim north from the largely Christian south. Jos has endured years of outbreaks of brutal ethnic and sectarian violence. Hundreds have died this year alone. A third explosion hit a church in Gadaka, in northern Yobe state.
These attacks followed days of clashes between the security services and Islamist militants which left at least 68 people dead. The town of Damaturu has seen some Boko Haram's nastiest attacks. A wave of shootings and bombings there left 65 people dead on November 5th. Two explosions were reported in Damaturu on December 25th; three people died along with the bomber.