Suicide Bomber Hits Church In Nigeria's Gombe, Wounding Eight

A suicide bomber blew himself up at the gates of a church in Nigeria's northeastern city of Gombe during a New Year service, wounding eight people, an official for Nigeria's Red Cross told Reuters on Thursday.

“This morning while people were in church for the New Year worship, a suicide attacker rode on a motorcycle trying to gain entrance to the premises of the church. When he was stopped at the gates by the church guards…he blew himself up and injured eight people,” the official said.

No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Sunni jihadist group Boko Haram, waging an insurgency to establish an Islamist state, is mainly focused on the three northeastern states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe but frequently set off bombs in other states targeting civilians.

This is the second attack in two days in state capital Gombe and the fourth attack in two months. The city's military barracks were attacked by a suicide bomber on New Year's Eve.

On Dec. 22 two explosions in northern Nigeria – one of them in Gombe – killed at least 20 people.

REUTERS