Nigeria: Gunfire In Damaturu, Bishop Tells Of Turmoil
By MISNA
Mortar fire, explosions and bursts of automatic weapons resonate in the town of Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state said Monsignor Oliver Dashe Doeme, Bishop of Maiduguri, to MISNA .
“The pastor said that the hospitals were filled with wounded – said Monsignor Doeme – and that the shootings and explosions have gone on all night.”
According to witnesses quoted by the Nigerian Tribune newspaper, from 5:00 pm in the afternoon yesterday in a battle between the elite units of the joint military force of men and Boko Haram, an armed group that claims to fight for the introduction of Islamic law across the country .
The Rev. Garba Idi, Damaturu representative of the Christian Association of Nigeria, has reported that “shootings and explosions everywhere.”
The shootings started in the aftermath of bomb attacks against three churches in the northern state of Kaduna.
According to the newspaper The Vanguard, the explosions and subsequent intercommunal violence has left at least 68 victims.