Infants Among 22 People Killed In Nigeria Church Attack

State officers stroll previous injured victims on hospital beds being handled for wounds following an assault by gunmen at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo city, southwest Nigeria on June 5, 2022.

-AFP by way of Getty Photos

ABUJA. Nigeria (AP) — Two infants are among the many 22 worshippers killed in an assault on a church in southwestern Nigeria that has shocked the West African nation, an emergency official advised The Related Press on Tuesday.

The useless have been taken to the morgue whereas about 50 wounded individuals are nonetheless being handled in hospital following the assault on the St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo city in Ondo state, mentioned Kadiri Olanrewaju, head of Nigeria’s Nationwide Emergency Administration Providers in Ondo.

The precise variety of these killed just isn't often known as among the useless have been taken away by members of the family for personal burials, mentioned residents.

Warning: the next pictures comprise graphic content material:

Private belongings and sneakers lie on the bottom of St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo, Nigeria, Monday, June 6, 2022, a day after an assault that focused worshipers.

AP Photograph/Sunday Alamba

“It's only these on the hospital morgue that I'm providing you with, not those within the church taken dwelling for burial. I don’t have that file,” Olanrewaju with the emergency reduction providers mentioned.

Ogunmolasuyi Oluwole and Adelegbe Timileyin, each of whom characterize Owo on the state and federal legislative homes, advised AP earlier that greater than 50 have been killed within the assault.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation with 206 million individuals, has grappled for greater than a decade with an insurgency within the northeast by the Islamic extremist rebels of Boko Haram and its offshoot, the Islamic State West Africa Province. The nation now's confronted by rising insecurity issues as separatists and pirates are blamed for assaults within the nation’s south whereas armed teams often launch lethal assaults within the northwest.

Earlier than the church assault, Ondo had been thought-about one in every of Nigeria’s most peaceable states. However now Owo, a small city of merchants and authorities staff positioned 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the state capital of Akure, is reeling from the violence of the church assault.

Faculties and public gathering spots remained closed on Tuesday and lots of residents stayed at dwelling, residents mentioned.

The Ondo Police Command has not made any arrests but nor have they confirmed the identities of the attackers, mentioned to be at the very least 5 in quantity, a spokeswoman mentioned.

“We are able to solely verify that explosives have been used and we discovered three undetonated IEDs (improvised explosive gadgets) on the scene,” police spokeswoman Odunlami Funmilayo advised the AP.

A police officer stands guard outdoors of the St. Francis Catholic church within the city of Owo, Nigeria, Monday, June 6, 2022. The gunmen who killed 50 individuals at a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria opened fireplace on worshippers each inside and out of doors the constructing in a coordinated assault earlier than escaping the scene, authorities and witnesses mentioned Monday. (AP Photograph/Sunday Alamba)

by way of Related Press

The attackers “sneaked into” the church premises, mentioned the police. A few of them have been “disguised as congregants whereas different armed males who had positioned themselves across the church premises from totally different instructions, fired into the church,” the police added.

The attackers opened fireplace on the worshippers simply because the Pentecost Mass was ending, survivors mentioned.

“There was no warning, no menace, this place has been peaceable,” mentioned Sunday Adewale, who works within the palace of the native chief. “They simply seemed for individuals’s gentle spot when individuals are relaxed.”