VATICAN CITY - The Holy See has urged an end to attacks on Christians in Nigeria after gunmen and a suicide bomber from the Islamist sect Boko Haram killed nine people and wounded hundreds more.

“Pain and horror are now regularly inflicted on Christians,” the Chief Vatican spokesman,Father Federico Lombardi, said in a statement after the massacre on Sunday.

The shooting was the latest of a series of attacks on Nigerian Christians evidently part of Boko Haram’s scheme to transform the country into an Islamic caliphate and expel Christians from the North of Nigeria. The gunmen attacked Churches in Biu and Jos as people were attending morning Mass. In Biu, the center of the Northeastern state of Borno, five men opened fire on a crowd of worshippers. Police there reported one person killed and several wounded including two in critical condition.

At the Christ Chosen Church of Jos, about 400km southwest, a suicide bomber destroyed the holy building triggering retaliation from the crowd of Christians. The toll there was 41 wounded, one suicide bomber and two innocent people dead.

Former Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini called for Europe to take action.

“Terrorism will never prevail”, said the spokeswoman for the High Representative for Common Foreign and Security of EU Catherin Ashton. “We work closely with Nigeria.”

Fr Lombardi expressed the hope that the churches in Nigeria will be able to cope with the situation even during its burdened condition.

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