Gunmen Attack Nigerian Churches, Killing at Least 30
Patrick McGroarty ("The Wall Street Journal," June 29, 2014)
Maiduguri, Nigeria—Gunmen on Sunday attacked services at three churches
near the Nigerian village where 276 schoolgirls were abducted in April, part
of a pounding of a Christian pocket in the predominantly Muslim north.
Residents of Chibok, where the schoolgirls were abducted from a boarding
school just ahead of final exams, said at least 30 people were killed when
attackers fired on churches in three nearby villages.
An exact toll of the dead and wounded wasn't clear. Survivors continued to
trickle into Chibok, said two residents.
Pastor Musa Yahya said nearly 100 people had gathered for the 8:30 a.m.
service at his small Methodist church in the village of Mgudina, 7 miles east
of Chibok, when gunfire erupted outside. His congregants scattered into the
bush. Mr. Yahya grabbed his bicycle and pedaled to a neighboring village,
where he caught a ride to Chibok on his brother's bicycle.
"It was hysteria," Mr. Yahya said. "When we heard the sound of the guns we
rushed out. We knew it was Boko Haram."
Boko Haram didn't immediately claim responsibility for the attack. The
anti-Western Islamist militancy has terrorized the region for years.
The group's radicalized young followers have killed thousands of people and
attacked churches and government offices. The group is also blamed for
shooting up mosques, and scores of Muslims have died during the five-year
insurgency.
Spokesmen for President Goodluck Jonathan and for the military didn't
respond to calls and text messages seeking comment on Sunday.
Although Boko Haram has driven thousands of people out of villages—and
planted flags in territory it now claims—the schoolgirls' kidnapping in April
was what caught the world's attention. Foreign powers including the U.S.,
the U.K. and China are helping Nigerian forces search for Boko Haram
encampments along Nigeria's vast and lawless northeastern borders, but there
has
been little visible progress so far.
Even as Nigeria ramps up the search for the missing girls, scores of people
—including more schoolgirls—have been abducted in recent weeks. On
Wednesday, a car bomb detonated outside a shopping mall in the capital, Abuja,
killing 21 people.
"Terrorism cannot survive in Nigeria," Vice President Namadi Sambo said
when he visited the wreckage of the mall bombing last week. "We will not rest
until it is extinguished."
But many residents in the desolate stretches of northeastern Nigeria
hardest hit by the insurgency say they have little faith the government and
military can quell the violence.
"The government doesn't care. We don't see any help," said Wuawe Tambidugu,
a 56-year-old religion teacher in the regional capital, Maiduguri.
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