Agenzia Fides

Maiduguri (Agenzia Fides) - " St. Patrick`s Cathedral was seriously damaged, windows and doors destroyed, the whole building was shaken to its foundations by the violence of the explosion", His Exc Mgr. Oliver Dashe Doeme tells Fides, Bishop of Maiduguri, capital of the State in northern Nigeria. Yesterday afternoon, on June 7, an armed group set off a bomb near the Cathedral. Two police stations were also hit, in a series of coordinated attacks attributed by local authorities to the sect Boko Haram. The death toll of the attacks is 11 people. "The situation in Maiduguri is very tense", said Mgr. Doeme, recalling that only "two weeks ago, another Catholic church was the target of an attack with explosives, as well as a secondary school ".
Boko Haram means "Western education is a sin" in haussa language. The sect has been responsible for several attacks in northern Nigeria. On June 6, an Islamic religious leader, who opposed the cult was killed in an attack in Biu, a town south of Maiduguri. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 08/06/2011)