Easter Sunday car bomb near Nigeria churches kills 38

(April 09, 2012) A suicide car bomber detonated his explosives on a busy road after apparently turning away from attacking Nigerian churches holding Easter Sunday services, killing at least 38 people. The massive blast, Sunday morning, struck Kaduna, the capital of Kaduna state, leaving charred motorcycles and debris strewn across a major road in the city. Nearby hotels and homes had their windows blown out and roofs torn away by the force of the powerful explosion, which engulfed a group of motorcycle taximen. The explosion damaged the nearby All Nations Christian Assembly Church and the ECWA Good News Church as churchgoers worshipped at an Easter service, the possible target of the bomber. While no one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack, suspicion immediately fell on a radical Islamist sect, Boko Haram, blamed for hundreds of killings in the oil-rich nation this year alone. And some fear the attack could further inflame tensions around Kaduna, a region on the dividing line between Nigeria's largely Christian south and Muslim north. In his Easter speech at the Vatican, Pope Benedict XVI mentioned the ongoing violence in Nigeria. Catholic churches have been targeted in previous attacks. Churches have been increasingly targeted by violence on holy days in Nigeria, a nation of more than 160 million people of Christians and Muslims. A Christmas Day suicide bombing of a Catholic church in Madalla near Nigeria's capital killed at least 44 people.