Politics
Nigeria update: Buhari to Jonathan – your administration is incompetent
Pope Benedict on Monday condemned the attacks as an “absurd gesture” and prayed that “the hands of the violent be stopped”.
The pope, speaking from his window overlooking St Peter’s Square in Rome, said such violence brought only pain, destruction and death.
Coordinated Attacks
The attacks, which came a few days after clashes between security forces and Boko Haram killed at least 68 people, show evidence of increasing coordination and strategy by the group that could ring alarm bells in Nigeria and Western capitals.
St. Theresa’s Catholic Church in Madala, a satellite town about 40 km from the center of the capital Abuja, was packed when the first blast exploded just outside after Christmas mass.
A few hours later, blasts were reported at the Mountain of Fire and Miracles Church in the central, ethnically and religiously mixed town of Jos, and at a church in Gadaka in the northern state of Yobe. Residents said many were wounded in Gadaka, but there were no immediate further details.
A suicide bomber killed four officials at the State Security Service in one of the other attacks in the northeastern town of Damaturu, police said. Residents heard two loud explosions and gunfire in the town.
A Reuters reporter at the church near Abuja saw the front roof had been destroyed, as had several houses nearby. Five burnt out cars were still smouldering. There were scenes of chaos, as shocked residents stared at the wreckage in disbelief.
