Christmas Day bomb hits church in Nigeria, agency says

Smoke rises from the scene of bombing Sunday at a Catholic church in Madala, west of the Nigerian capital.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

• NEW: People are killed in a Catholic church bombing, a local priest says
• NEW: Police exchange gunfire with attackers who bomb a second church
• NEW: Locals blame the attacks on Boko Haram but no one claims responsibility
• The blasts follow attacks on five churches in Nigeria during last year's Christmas season

(CNN) -- Bomb blasts struck two churches in Nigeria on Sunday as worshippers were attending Christmas Day services, stirring memories of strikes against Nigerian churches during last year's Christmas season.

The first explosion struck near a Catholic church in Madala, west of Abuja, Nigeria's capital, the National Emergency Management Agency said.

A second attack struck the Mountain of Fire Ministries church in the city of Jos, northeast of the capital, said journalist Hassan John, who witnessed the aftermath of the two blasts that targeted the church.

The emergency agency did not immediately provide details about the bombings, including the number of dead or wounded.

"Lives have been lost but we do not have the details," said the Rev. Michael Ekpenyong, speaking about the first bombing. "The area has been cordoned off. I tried to call the priest but I couldn't get through."

Ekpenyong, the secretary general of the country's Catholic Secretariat, said the church that was bombed was "not a big church, but lots of people attend."

Photos from the scene showed burned-out cars and at least three bodies lying on the ground, one covered with a blanket, at the rural church.

Usman Abdallah Baba, who witnessed the bombing, said there were at least 15 or 16 casualties and that authorities were still counting the toll.

He said local people were already blaming the violent extremist Muslim Boko Haram sect, which has targeted Christians as well as Muslims its members consider insufficiently Islamic.

The second church, in Jos, was hit by two explosions when young men threw bombs, said John, the journalist at the scene.

Police responded quickly and exchanged gunfire with the attackers, who injured at least one of the police officers, he said.

The injured officer has been rushed to the Jos University teaching hospital for medical attention.

There were about five attackers, one with an AK-47. They fled into the crowd and disappeared after the attack, John said.

Sunday's attacks follow bombings at five churches in Jos last year that occurred while residents were celebrating Christmas Eve. The blasts killed dozens in Jos, which lies on a faith-based fault line between the Muslim-dominated north and the mainly Christian south.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation. It has the world's sixth largest Christian population -- about 80.5 million people as of 2010, according to a report published this month by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life in Washington. That makes the country just over 50% Christian, according to the Pew figures.

The latest attacks follow two days of clashes between militants and security forces in northern Nigeria, an army commander said.

Chief of Army Staff Azubuike Ihejirika said the clashes left three soldiers dead and several more wounded.

The fighting began Thursday between Boko Haram militants and the military in the Yobe state town of Damaturu, Ihejirika said.

"There was a major encounter with the Boko Haram in Damaturu," Ihejirika said Friday. "We lost three of our soldiers, seven were wounded. But we killed over 50 of their members."

Boko Haram translates from the local Hausa as "Western education is outlawed." The group has morphed into an insurgency responsible for dozens of attacks in Nigeria in the last two years.

Boko Haram's targets include police outposts and churches as well as places associated with "Western influence."

CNN's Esprit Smith and Hamdi Alkhshali contributed to this report.

Source: http://www.cnn.com/2011/12/25/world/africa/nigeria-church-bombing/index.html?eref=rss_world

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