Death toll from Nigeria church bombing, aftermath rises to 19

Lagos, Nigeria (PANA) - The death toll from Sunday's suicide bombing of a Catholic church in Nigeria's restive northern city of Jos, and the reprisal attacks that followed, has risen to 19, the local Punch newspaper reported on Tuesday.

The death toll from the bombing of St. Finbarr's Catholic Church in the Plateau state capital city was put at 11 on the day the bombing occurred.

But the reprisal attacks that followed, which pitched Christians against Muslims, has led to the death of eight more persons.

The Punch quoted the Chief Medical Director of the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH), Dr. Ishaya Pam, as saying seven additional corpses were brought to the hospital on Monday, as the attacks escalated.

“Seven more bodies were picked up from various parts of the town and brought to the hospital. A soldier was stabbed at Angwan Rogio in the head with a knife and it stuck. The knife was removed by our neurosurgeon, in what has been adjudged as a medical feat,”
he said.

He also confirmed that one of the injured persons on admission died on Monday morning, while the others were responding to treatment.

Indications are that the death toll could be higher, since the bodies of some victims may not have been discovered or taken to the morgue, and because tension remains high in the city.

Though no group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attack, it is mostly assumed that it was the handiwork of the Islamic sect Boko Haram, which has previously targetted churches in the town and elsewhere in the predominantly-Muslim north.

Besides, suicide bombing, the mode of attack on the church on Sunday, is the hallmark of the sect.
-0- PANA SEG 13Mar2012