Over 50 Feared Dead From Attack on Catholic Church in Nigeria, Presiding Priest Reportedly Abducted

Katherine HugginsJun 5th, 2022, 9:00 pm
 
Ondo State governor Rotimi Akeredolu (3rd L) points to blood the stained floor after an attack by gunmen at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo town, southwest Nigeria on June 5, 2022. - Gunmen with explosives stormed a Catholic church and opened fire in southwest Nigeria on June 5, killing "many" worshippers and wounding others, the government and police said. The violence at St. Francis Catholic Church in Owo town in Ondo State erupted during the morning service in a rare attack in the southwest of Nigeria, where jihadists and criminal gangs operate in other regions.

Photo by -/AFP via Getty Images

Over 50 people, including many children, are feared dead and a priest has been abducted following a Sunday attack on a church in Nigeria, the Associated Press reported.

Citing statements from state lawmakers, the AP wrote that “gunmen opened fire on worshippers and detonated explosives at a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria.”

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack on the St. Francis Catholic Church.

Lawmaker Adelegbe Timileyin said, according to the AP, that the presiding priest was abducted from the church as well.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari said “only fiends from the nether region could have conceived and carried out such dastardly act,” adding that  “no matter what, this country shall never give in to evil and wicked people, and darkness will never overcome light.”

The Vatican responded to the news of the attack in a statement, saying that “while the details are being clarified, Pope Francis prays for the victims and the country, painfully affected at a time of celebration, and entrusts them both to the Lord so that he may send his spirit to console them.”

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