The army said on Sunday that its troops “must have” killed more than 600 insurgents in the northeast in the past one month.
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It is the latest in a string of bombings and shooting attacks blamed on the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram that has killed some 200 people in the past week.
The attacker entered the Redeemed Christian Church of God in the Jigawa area on the outskirts of Potiskum and detonated his explosives. “I believe many lives were lost”. Another suicide attack at a bus station in February killed 17 people and injured 27; and in May, a gunman wearing a suicide vest attacked the College of Administrative and Business Studies there.
Abuja: In the latest attack suspected to be staged by the militant outfit Boko Haram, a woman suicide bomber blew herself at a church in Nigeria, killing five.
Jos is a hotspot for violent religious confrontations, located in the center of the country where Nigeria’s majority Muslim north and mainly Christian south collide.
The armies managed to push the militants out of several towns and villages, but the recent attacks show the group to be far from defeated.
Boko Haram has been known to target churches in Nigeria before, including spates of attacks on the places of worship in November 2011 and June 2013.
Boko Haram took over a large swath of north-eastern Nigeria previous year and stepped up cross-border raids.
Elected earlier this year, Buhari vowed to focus on the fight against the terrorist group, which has pledged allegiance to ISIS.
Washington strongly condemned the attacks, a State Department spokesman said, adding that the U.S. “will continue to support Nigeria’s efforts to bring those responsible…to justice”.
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“As we have said before, the people of northern Nigeria deserve to live free from violence and from terror”. The police, military and government authorities have previously downplayed death tolls in the Boko Haram insurgency.
