Four Christians Killed in Nigeria Church Bombing

Thursday, July 31, 2014

By Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent

KANO (Worthy News)-- A bomb attack in the northern Nigerian city of Kano Sunday killed four Christians and a soldier, according to Morning Star News.

The bomb was thrown over the fence of St. Charles Catholic Church while parishioners were leaving mass.

"The bomb was thrown by the Boko Haram bomber over the fence behind the church because the church leadership had mounted a barricade on the entrance of the church," parishioner Gabriel George told Morning Star News. "Four members of our church died and eight others who were injured are in hospital receiving treatment."

Kano state police said the bomb exploded on church property, killing four church goers and a soldier guarding the building while injuring eight others.

On that same Sunday, five police officers were injured stopping a suicide bomber outside a university, police said. Hiding the bomb under a long black hijab, the woman detonated the device after police requested that a female colleague search her.

While Boko Haram -- translated as "Western education is a sin" -- is the name given to its Islamists, the group calls itself "Jama'atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda'awati wal-Jihad" or "The Congregation of the People of Tradition for Proselytism and Jihad."

But whatever its called, the group has ties with al Shabaab in Somalia and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb as it seeks to impose Islamic law throughout Nigeria.