Tension flares after Nigeria church bombed

JOS, NIGERIA – A suicide bomber drove a car packed with explosives into a church in the Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday, killing two people and wounding 38, and angry Christian youths reacted by beating two Muslims to death.

“The National Emergency Management Agency confirms three dead in suspected suicide car explosion in Jos today, including the bomber whose body was shredded to pieces,” NEMA spokesperson Yushua Shuaib said.

“As of now, 38 victims have been admitted to hospital for treatment.”

Security forces cordoned off the area, while angry Christian youths set up a roadblock where they dragged two Muslim men off their motorbikes and beat them to death, police said.

Ethnic and religious tensions run high in the city, which sometimes sees dozens killed in bouts of intercommunal violence.

“I heard a loud explosion near the church and I hit the ground. It shook buildings,” said local resident Ishayaa Makut.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast, but Islamist militant group Boko Haram has targeted churches as part of its growing campaign of violence against the government.

Attacks on churches have raised fears the sect, styled on the Taliban, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” is trying to ignite sectarian strife in Nigeria, Africa’s top oil producer.

Another bomb exploded near a church in the Nigerian town of Suleja, on the edge of the capital Abuja, on Sunday, wounding five people.

Boko Haram, which wants sharia law more widely applied across the continent’s most populous nation, has become increasingly sophisticated and deadly in its methods in the last six months. It has widened its targets beyond attacks on police and other authority figures to include Christians.