Five killed in church bombing

Five people are dead following a suicide bombing during a Christian church service in north-east Nigeria.

It is the latest in a week of attacks blamed on the Islamic extremist group, Boko Haram. Some 200 people have been killed. Nearly 100 men and boys, praying in a mosque, were gunned down on Wednesday.

In the latest, police rushed to the Redeemed Christian Church of God, in Potiskum, the largest city in northeastern Yobe state. The blast came from a woman in the congregation.

There were at least five bodies from the blastin the morgue of the local hospital, where a wounded woman was being treated.

Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, condemned the attack on Friday as barbaric and said it underlined the need to expand the multinational army and crush the extremists.

Boko Haram took control of a large swath of north-east Nigeria last year and declared an Islamic caliphate.

As it stepped up cross-border attacks, Nigeria and its neighbours formed a multinational army that this year drove them out of towns and villages.

But bombings and village attacks are increasing, as Boko Haram responds to an Islamic State group directive to increase attacks in the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.