[ 2011-12-30 ]

Toll from Nigeria Christmas attacks 'rises to 49'
LAGOS (AFP) - The death toll from a wave of
attacks blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram
targeting churches and other locations on
Christmas day in Nigeria has risen to at least 49,
a church official said Friday.

"The number of deaths as of yesterday was 43, but
plus one today, making 44," said Father Isaac Achi
of St. Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla near the
capital Abuja, where the bloodiest attack took
place.

An emergency source said around 50 were also
wounded there.

The previous toll at St. Theresa had been 37 dead.
Five others were killed nationwide, including a
policeman in a shootout following a bomb attack on
a church in the central city of Jos.

Three security agents and a suicide bomber were
killed in an attack the same day in the
northeastern city of Damaturu.

Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of attacks
in Nigeria, including an August suicide bombing of
UN headquarters in Abuja that killed at least 25,
but the Christmas bombs at churches sparked fears
of reprisals from Christians.

Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation, is roughly
divided between a mainly Muslim north and
predominately Christian south.

Unknown attackers threw a bomb into an Arabic
school in the southern mainly Christian Delta
state on Tuesday, wounding six children and an
adult.

On Friday, an explosion rocked an area near a
mosque in the northeastern city of Maiduguri,
killing four people, according to the military and
a resident.

Christian leaders have warned that they will have
to defend themselves if authorities do not address
the spiralling violence.

President Goodluck Jonathan summoned the nation's
security chiefs for talks on Thursday, with
authorities so far unable to stop violence blamed
on Boko Haram despite heavy-handed military raids.

Source - AFP

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