Boko Haram Kill Nine in Northeast Nigerian Church Attack
(Globe and Mail / Worthy News)– Gunmen opened fire on a church service in a remote village in northeastern Nigeria, killing nine people as worshippers fled into the bush, police and a witness said on Monday.
A member of the congregation said people jumped through windows to try to escape Sunday’s attack in Attangara in the Gwoza hills – the main stronghold of Boko Haram militants waging an escalating campaign to carve out an Islamist state.
“More than 10 of them [the gunmen] were riding motorcycles and one car,” she said, adding some local people had pursued the attackers, killing four of them and capturing three. A police source said nine people were killed in the assault on the church.
Boko Haram has killed thousands since it started its campaign in 2009 and grabbed world headlines in April when it abducted more than 200 schoolgirls in another part of Borno state.
Nigerians have protested almost every day since the girls were kidnapped, demanding action to free them. On Monday demonstrations were banned in the capital Abuja on the grounds they could be hijacked by “dangerous elements,” a police statement said.
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