The African-based terror group known as Boko Haram has taken out attacks against both Christians and Muslims in Nigeria. These attacks included a bombing at an evangelical church that left five people dead.
According to a report from the Associated Press, a female suicide bomber blew herself up in a crowded evangelical Christian church service in northeast Nigeria on Sunday. Witnesses said that at least five people were killed.
"Police rushed to the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Potiskum, the largest city in northeastern Yobe state," the Associated Press wrote. "Wailing women and stunned men wandered aimlessly."
A congregant who declined to give her name out for safety reasons told the Associated Press that the blast came from a woman who was in the congregation. A reporter working for AP indicated that the local hospital had five bodies in its morgue and was treating a woman wounded from the explosion.
"It is the latest in a string of bombings and shooting attacks blamed on the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram that has killed some 200 people in the past week," the Associated Press wrote.
According to the Associated Press, Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari condemned the attacks as barbaric and expressed the need for a multinational army to take out Boko Haram. The terror group, which has an alliance with ISIS, is responding to a directive to increase attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
"At least 13,000 people have died in the 6-year-old Islamic uprising that also has driven 1.5 million people from their homes, some across borders," the Associated Press wrote.
A report from CBS News noted that Boko Haram also carried out attacks against Muslims by detonating two bombs at a crowded mosque and Muslim restaurant in the Nigerian city of Jos, killing 44 people. National Emergency Management Agency coordinator Abdussalam Mohammed told CBS News that 67 other people were wounded in the attacks, which happened on Sunday night.
"The explosion at the Yantaya Mosque came as leading cleric Sani Yahaya of the Jama'atu Izalatul Bidia organization, which preaches peaceful co-existence of all religions, was addressing a crowd during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, according to survivors who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals," CBS News wrote.
CBS News reported that the other bomb exploded at a restaurant that is patronized by state governors and other elite politicians in Nigeria. It noted that the city of Jos has been a hotspot for religious confrontation, given its location in between the country's Muslim north and Christian south.
"The city has been targeted in the past by bomb blasts claimed by Boko Haram extremists that have killed hundreds of people," CBS News wrote.
State Department spokesman John Kirby released a statement condemning the attacks from Boko Haram in Nigeria.
"We will continue to support Nigeria's efforts to bring those responsible for these attacks, as well as previous attacks, to justice," Kirby wrote. "As we have said before, the people of northern Nigeria deserve to live free from violence and from terror."
