CHURCH BUILDING BOMBED

On May 7 in Chikun County, a town in Nigeria, a bomb hit an Assemblies of God Church building in Kabrasha village, destroying it and damaging nearby homes, sources said.

A military spokesman acknowledged that government troops with air support partially damaged the church building and three houses inadvertently while pursuing “bandits,” the government term for Muslim Fulani herdsmen, but stopped short of saying the damage came from a bomb from a military helicopter.

An area leader, however, said the church building was destroyed by a bomb from a helicopter that had been hovering in the area for days. Local community leader Peter Aboki, president of the Gbagyi Development Association (GDA), said in a statement that there were no casualties as many villagers were working in farm fields when the bomb hit around 2 p.m.

“Hours after the incident, a group of people numbering about 100 passed through the village carrying guns,” Aboki said. “One of them was carrying a flag which is not a Nigerian flag, one other person was making some incantations in Arabic. We suspect that this flag could be an insurgents’ flag. For somebody to be carrying a flag other than the Nigeria flag means something.”