On June 5, local time, a Catholic church in Ondo State in southern Nigeria was attacked, killing at least 40 people. Witnesses said a group of unidentified militants used assault rifles and bombs to attack the crowd that was holding Mass inside the church, "the pulpit and bench were blown to pieces, and the floor was covered with bloodstained personal belongings." ”
After several days of investigation, the Nigerian government announced that they had identified the culprits behind the incident. According to The Herald of Nigeria on June 9, a meeting of the National Security Council chaired by Nigerian President Buhari on the same day confirmed that the extremist group "Islamic State West African Province" (ISWAP) was the perpetrator of the attack.
Herald of Nigeria: The federal government says the Islamic State province of West Africa is responsible for the attack on the church in the town of Ovo
Nigeria's Interior Minister, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, said at a news conference that authorities had not yet arrested anyone, but that security agencies had been instructed to hunt down the killers and bring them to justice. He added that Nigerian security agencies had focused their attention on the incident.
At the same time, Areg Besola stressed that the attack had nothing to do with ethnic or religious issues, and the Nigerian authorities believed that the extremist group was motivated by an attempt to provoke Nigerians to attack each other, thus making the conflict look like an "ethnic-religious war".
A Catholic church in Ovo Township, Ondo State, southern Nigeria, was attacked on June 5, when Mass was taking place inside the church when a group of unidentified attackers attacked the crowd inside the church with assault rifles and bombs. Witnesses told The Vanguard that the attackers first detonated improvised explosive devices and then shot at fleeing crowds from different angles, including several children.
British Reuters also quoted witnesses as saying that near the end of the Mass, the attackers suddenly strafed the crowd. The scene after the incident showed the intensity of the violence, "the pulpit and bench were blown to pieces, the ground was covered with bloodstained sandals, newspapers, umbrellas and other personal belongings, a hymn and a Bible full of rubble and broken glass." ”
According to the casualty figures given by on the 9th by the governor of Ondo, Arakunrin Akeredolu, a total of 127 people were attacked, of which 40 died, 61 are still treated in hospitals, and 26 have been discharged. He said the state government would provide land in the future to hold mass funerals for the victims.
Qatar's Al Jazeera said that as of the 9th local time, no armed group had declared it responsible for the attack.
The day after the attack, a Nigerian police officer stood guard inside the church where the attack occurred
The injured in the attack are treated at a local hospital in Ondo State
The Islamic State of West Africa Province, which the Nigerian government has identified as the man behind it, split off from the extremist group Boko Haram in 2016 and frequently carried out terrorist attacks along the Lake Chad region in northeastern Nigeria and neighbouring Chad, Niger and Cameroon. With ondo, the state of Ondo, which was attacked, far from the group's traditional reach, some analysts fear it could mean the group is expanding into other regions.
Recent attacks across Nigeria have been frequent and the internal situation is extremely unstable. According to the Herald, on May 22, local time, a group of militants from the Islamic State of West Africa attacked a village in the northeastern borno state, killing at least 50 people.
As Nigeria's Equiti state holds a gubernatorial election on June 18, the recent attacks have also prompted the Nepalese government to step up security in the state. The Herald said Nigerian police would deploy 17,374 officers to Ekiti state to ensure the safety of the election process.
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