Armed attackers caused a bloodbath at a Catholic church in the Nigerian city of Owo on Whit Sunday. Islamist Fulani herdsmen are suspected to be the perpetrators. The background is apparently a conflict over grazing land.
The Catholic Church of St. Francis Xavier became the scene of a bloody attack on Pentecost Sunday.
The Pentecost Sunday Mass in Owo was almost over when a group of men stormed the Catholic Church of St. Francis Xavier just after nine o’clock. “We were in church when the terrorists attacked us. They broke into the church by throwing improvised explosive devices on the building and shot at the congregation,” Andrew Abayomi, a priest at the church in southwestern Ondo state, told local media. “We hid in the church while they shot at us indiscriminately. They only withdrew after 20 minutes.”
Videos on the Internet show men, women and children covered in blood in colorful Sunday robes lying lifeless under the pews while people wail around them. According to Abayomi, it is difficult to give an exact number of casualties because those responsible focused on getting the wounded to the hospitals. Residents and churchgoers told local media that about 70 worshipers were shot dead and others kidnapped.
For its part, Reuters news agency, citing doctors, officials and volunteers, reported that at least 50 people were killed while dozens more were being treated for injuries. In the course of the day, those responsible for the surrounding hospitals urgently asked for more blood supplies.
“Fiends from the Underworld”
The governor of the state of Ondo, Arakunrin Oluwarotimi Akeredolu, spoke of a “black Sunday” for Owo. He condemned the “diabolical and heinous attack” and promised to find the attackers. The Vatican said Pope Francis was praying for the victims who were “grieved in a moment of celebration.” Anselm Ologunwa, the chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in Ondo, said: “Nowhere in Nigeria is safe.”
Ologunwa linked the church massacre to the attack on a train in April that killed nine and kidnapped dozens. But he also recalled the kidnapping of a Methodist prelate from the southeastern state of Abia and two other pastors, for whose release the church had to pay $240,000.
Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari also condemned “the heinous killing of believers”. «No matter what happens, this country will never give in to evil and wicked people, and darkness will never defeat the light. Ultimately, Nigeria will win, »said the President, whose government has been criticized for the sharp increase in insecurity in the country.
Relatives have gathered at a hospital around an injured victim of the attack on the church in Owo.
Maybe it was about revenge
While large parts of Nigeria are struggling with security problems, Ondo has so far remained relatively peaceful. However, in recent years there has also been an increase in kidnappings and attacks in connection with conflicts between herdsmen and farmers. While no one immediately claimed responsibility for the Whit Sunday attack, local MP Adeyemi Olayemi suspected the perpetrators were Islamist Fulani herders.
The ranchers have long had a conflict with local farmers over access to land. Originally, the semi-nomadic Muslim Fulani lived mainly in the Sahel region in northern Nigeria. Persistent drought and drought, however, allowed them to move further and further with their herds of cows into the ethnically and religiously mixed interior of Nigeria and into the largely Christian south. Bloody fights often broke out over grazing land.
MP Olayemi believes the attack is in retaliation for a grazing restriction imposed by the Ondos government last August. It forbids grazing in forests and primarily affects the Fulani cowherds. “Since the government drove the shepherds out of the forests, security has increased,” says Olayemi. “The attack on the church is a retaliatory attack to send a devilish message to the governor.”