POPE BENEDICT XVI has condemned the Christmas Day bomb attacks by Islamist militants in Nigeria as an “absurd gesture” and prayed “the hands of the violent be stopped”.
The pope, speaking from his window overlooking St Peter’s Square in Rome, said such violence brought only pain, destruction and death.
Militants of the Boko Haram sect said they had set off the bombs, raising fears that they are trying to ignite sectarian civil war in the nation. Three of the five bombs hit churches and one killed at least 27 people at a Catholic church.
“Holy Christmas inspires us in a particularly strong way to pray to God so that the hands of the violent are stopped, (hands) that sow death in the world,” the pope said.
He said news of the bombings in Nigeria had brought him “profound sadness” and he wanted to assure Nigeria’s Christian community, hit by “this absurd gesture”, that he was close to them.
The Boko Haram Islamist sect, which aims to impose sharia law across Africa’s most populous country, claimed responsibility for three church bombings, the second Christmas in a row it has carried out killings at Christian houses of worship.
Boko Haram – which in the Hausa language spoken in northern Nigeria means “Western education is sinful” – is loosely modelled on the Taliban movement in Afghanistan.
Its low level insurgency used to be largely confined to northeastern Nigeria, but it has struck several parts of the north, centre and the capital Abuja this year.
Last Christmas Eve, a series of bomb blasts around Jos killed 32 people, and others died in attacks on two churches in the northeast.
Security forces also blamed the sect for two explosions in the north and fear is growing that Boko Haram is trying to ignite a sectarian civil war in a country split evenly between Christians and Muslims who for the most part, co-exist in peace.
The White House condemned “this senseless violence and tragic loss of life on Christmas Day”.
UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon also condemned the attacks and expressed his condolences “to the people of Nigeria and to the bereaved families”.
“The Secretary-General calls once again for an end to all acts of sectarian violence in the country and reiterates his firm conviction that no objective sought can justify this resort to violence,” a statement said. – (Reuters)