Pope Francis on Sunday on the final day of his trip to Turkey condemned the deadly attacks on the Central mosque in Kano, northern Nigeria saying the act was a “extremely serious sin against God. ”
He made this remarks at a meeting with Turkish political and religious officials, at the start of his second trip to the Middle East this year, the Pope further urged Muslim leaders to condemn the “barbaric violence” being committed in Islam’s name against religious minorities in Iraq and Syria.
At least 100 people were killed and 135 wounded when two suicide bombers blew themselves up and gunmen opened fire during weekly prayers on Friday at the Grand Mosque in Kano.
President Goodluck Jonathan has also condemned the attack as a heinous.
President Francois Hollande urged a united front against the “barbarism” of Boko Haram Islamists.
“In Nigeria, an attack that killed more than 120 people coming out of a mosque — that’s what a sect like Boko Haram is capable of, that’s why we still need to fight together, always fight against terrorism,” Hollande said.
“We must unite against barbarism, against the risks posed by fundamentalism, notably in the Sahel, in Africa,” he said at an annual gathering of French-speaking countries hosted this year by Senegal.