So I’ve been feeling pretty numb all week, ever since I awoke in the wee hours of Saturday morning only to hear on the BBC that the worst bombing attack in Nigeria’s history had just taken place.
The details were fuzzy, but a series of bombs had exploded in Kano, Nigeria’s second largest city and the largest city in the predominantly Muslim north. A number of police stations had been attacked and an immigration office was targeted. Multiple bombs had gone off in these locations; my brother Ian told me the following day that Al Jazeera was reporting up to 20 bombs (!). Now we are learning that over 185 were killed and the Sunday New York Times featured a photo of corpses being hauled away in a pick up truck.
The fundamentalist group ‘Boko Haram’ (which means in Hausa ‘western education is forbidden’) has claimed responsibility. This is at least the second time they have struck in the last month. On Christmas Day, they killed Christians emerging from services in Jos and Abuja, both cities where family members of mine live. Thanks be to God no one I know was hurt, or even close to the scene, but people – be they Muslims or Christians - are traumatized and fearful.
The Federal Government does not seem to have a handle on Boko Haram - this terror campaign has been escalating in the last several years and this latest attack came on the heels of a nation-wide strike that paralyzed the whole country. (That story is for another blog.)
Suffice it to say, I am praying, more than ever for Nigeria.
May the Prince of Peace come quickly, I pray.
