- Unidentified gunmen attacked the church during Sunday Mass
- Local media and medics reported at least 50 killed
- Authorities have not yet provided details
- Such attacks are rare in southwestern Nigeria
- Pope Francis is praying for the victims, the Vatican said
LAGOS, June 5 (Reuters) – Gunmen attacked a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria during a Sunday service, killing at least 50 people, including women and children, according to a hospital doctor and media reports.
Several Nigerian news outlets reported that gunmen shot at pilgrims and detonated explosives at St. Francis Catholic Church in Ouo. The identity and motive of the attackers were not immediately clear.
Authorities have not yet released details of the attack. Funmilayo Ibukun Odunlami, a police spokesman for Ondo State, said police would make a new statement soon.
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“It is so sad that during the Holy Liturgy, unknown gunmen attacked the St. Francis Catholic Church … leaving many dangerous dead and many others wounded, and the Church was inflicted,” said Nigerian Catholic Church spokesman Rev. Augustine Iquu. .
Iquu said the bishop and parish priests survived the attack unharmed.
A doctor at Ovo Hospital told Reuters that at least 50 bodies had been taken to two hospitals in the city after the attack. The doctor, who declined to be named because he was not authorized to speak to the press, also said he needed a blood donation to treat the wounded.
President Mohammadu Bukhari condemned the attack, calling it “disgusting”, and the Vatican said Pope Francis was praying for the victims, who were “painfully beaten at the time of the celebration”.
Nigeria is fighting an Islamist insurgency in the northeast and armed gangs that carry out ransom attacks and kidnappings, mostly in the northwest.
In the southwest, such attacks are rare. Ondo Governor Arakunrin Oluvarotimi Akeridolu interrupted his trip to the capital, Abuja, and returned to Ondo after the attack. “We will commit all available resources to pursue these attackers and make them pay,” he said in a statement.
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Report by Fikayo Owoeye in Lagos, MacDonald Dzirutwe, Camillus Eboh and Felix Onuah in Abuja; Edited by Catherine Evans and David Holmes
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