ABUJA. Nigeria – Men armed with explosives killed at least 38 people, including five children, in an attack on a Catholic church in southwestern Nigeria, the Catholic Diocese of Ondo State told Reuters. ‘Associated Press.

Some of the dead “were taken to private hospitals and we have not been able to determine the number of casualties for this,” said a spokesperson speaking on behalf of Bishop Jude Arogundade of the Catholic Diocese. d’Ondo, suggesting that the death toll could be higher.

Kadiri Olanrewaju, head of Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Services in Ondo, said on Tuesday that 22 bodies had been counted at the morgue while two state lawmakers told the AP on Sunday that more than 50 people had been killed in the attack on St. Francis Catholic Church in Ville d’Owo in Ondo State.

The Ondo Catholic Church has verified the names of the 38 people taken to the Catholic Hospital and Federal Medical Center, the Ondo Church spokesman told AP.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with 206 million people, has been grappling for more than a decade with an insurgency in the northeast by Islamic extremist rebels Boko Haram and its offshoot, the province of the Islamic State in West Africa. The country now faces growing insecurity issues, with separatists and pirates blamed for attacks in the south of the country while armed groups frequently launch deadly attacks in the northwest.