Eight people, including a Saudi citizen, have been arrested following Sunday’s bomb attack on a Catholic church in Tanzania.
“Those detained by the Tanzanian police include a group of people from Tanzania, a few from Arab countries and other foreign countries,” said Osama Nugali, a spokesman at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, yesterday.
Nugali said that the ministry and the Saudi Embassy in Tanzania are working closely with Tanzanian officials in the case.
The Saudi ambassador to Tanzania rushed to the northern city of Arusha, where two people died in the bombing of the newly opened church. Nearly four dozen people were injured in the blast just before the church’s inaugural Mass, which was attended by the pope’s envoy to Tanzania.
“Information on the church bombing in Tanzania is still not clear,” Nugali said. “Tanzanian authorities arrested a group of Tanzanians, Arabs and foreigners, who were there in the area and are being questioned.”
The Foreign Ministry is waiting for a report on the bombings and the identity of those arrested, said another official source.
In a statement, the Tanzanian government said, “It is a terrorist attack carried out by one person or a group of the enemies of the country.”
The suspected bombers include two Christians and four people from the Gulf.
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