A suicide car bomber killed three people and wounded 38 near a church on Sunday in
this central Nigerian city where hundreds have been killed in religious and ethnic
violence. The radical Islamist sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the
attack on the main headquarters of the Church of Christ in Nigeria that hit as worshipers
took part in an early morning service. Following the attack Christian youths went
on rampage in the city beating two people to death. Also Sunday a bomb exploded
near a church on the edge of the capital Abuja, wounding five people, while in the
northeastern city Gombe, police detonated two bombs planted at the police barracks. The
attacks and assaults against Christians, police and public offices in Nigeria’s north,
are widening distrust between members of the two main religious groups in Nigeria,
a multiethnic nation of more than 160 million people. The violence, though fractured
across religious lines, often has more to do with local politics, economics and rights
to grazing lands.