THIS DAY IN HISTORY: 22 JULY, 2012 Suicide bomb kills three, injured 48 others in Bauchi church

On 22 July, 2012, a suicide bomber who tried to ram an explosives-packed car into a church Sunday at St. John’s Catholic Church in Wunti area of Bauchi city, capital of Bauchi state, killed a woman, a child and self while badly wounding dozens more.

Tight security was imposed on churches after incessant bombings claimed by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram.

The head of the Red Cross in Bauchi, Adamu Abubakar disclosed that worshippers were being screened outside the church building when the bomber approached, ramming his car into the line of people waiting to enter Sunday services.

“We have three dead in all, including the bomber, a woman and a child. Forty-eight others were seriously injured in the explosion,” Abubakar disclosed.

Although there was no immediate claim of responsibility, the attack resembled those previously claimed by Boko Haram, blamed for killing more than 1,400 people in northern and central Nigeria between 2010 and July 22, when the attack occurred.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a similar attack on June 3 in Bauchi city in which a suicide bomber tried to drive a vehicle packed with explosives into a church, killing at least 15 people and wounding dozens more.

Since re-launching its insurgency in 2010, the group’s attacks have grown increasingly deadly and sophisticated, including suicide bombings at the UN headquarters in Abuja and an office for one of the country’s most prominent newspapers.

The deadliest attack at the time included January 2012 in Kano when at least 185 people died in a series of coordinated bombings and shootings.

Muslims have often been its victims, but the then President Goodluck Jonathan warned that the group was seeking to spark a religious conflict with the series of attacks on Christians.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer, is divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south.

The Jonathan-led federal government said that it was engaging in back-channel talks in an effort to halt the violence.

A previous attempt at dialogue in 2012 collapsed when a mediator quit over leaks to the media and a Boko Haram spokesman said they could not trust the government.

Boko Haram was believed to have several factions, including a hardcore Islamist wing.