The chairman of a local community group, Osi Olisa, said the gunmen also shot people on the road before escaping.

No group has claimed the attack in River State, although suspicion has fallen on an armed group believed to be behind kidnappings and killings in the area.

In November, local defence groups and security officials shot dead the group’s leader.

Gun violence is common in parts of Nigeria’s oil-producing Niger Delta region, where various militant groups take up arms against multinational companies to demand a share of oil proceeds.

His 2-year-old son Jaxon spent Christmas in an intensive care unit after his kidneys were failing, he developed respiratory issues, had difficulty passing urine and had abnormal brain activity among other issues.

  

Joel and his wife Janie started the hashtag #HealJax while documenting their son’s journey on Instagram.

Their photos and videos have prompted almost 2,000 posts on Instagram asking for prayers for the child, as well as a prayer vigil at Bethel Church in Redding, California.

 

Just one day after Joel posted that Jaxon’s health was slightly improving; he announced that his 4-year-old daughter Addie has been diagnosed with the same strand of strand of E.coli Jaxon has.

  

Joel said that no matter the circumstances, he and his family remain hopeful that a ‘breakthrough’ will happen.

 

“We look fear in the eye and laugh because it’s just a mere shadow darkness, and darkness has no power over us,” he said.

“We put our full trust in God, our healer, and we step into the love, joy and peace that comes with victory.”

The Anglican leader said the 2017 terrorist atrocities in London and Manchester and the Grenfell Tower disaster had been met with heroism from the emergency services.

But he also used his message to highlight the suffering of people “struggling to find work or relying on food banks” whose plight did not make national headlines.

The Archbishop used his message, being broadcast on the BBC, to say that as well as the attacks in London and Manchester, “all over the world we witnessed the horror and devastation caused by terrorism”.

There had also been other “terrible tragedies”, he said, adding that he visited Grenfell Tower when the west London block was still burning and “I remember the desperation and sorrow”.

“Then there are those whose suffering will never make the news,” he added.

“People who are struggling to find work or relying on food banks. Those who are bereaved, or coping with poor mental health or physical illness.

“When things feel unrelentingly difficult, there are often questions which hang in the air: Is there any light at all? Does anyone care?”

The Archbishop highlighted a Biblical passage from the Gospel of John – “the light shone in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it”.

That “light” was seen in the “resilience of Borough Market” which was now as vibrant and welcoming as before the June attack, it was “in the faces of the hundreds of volunteers” who helped in the aftermath of the Grenfell blaze, and in the heroism of the…

They said worshippers shut the church’s iron gate to prevent the assailant entering and killing more people in the attack which lasted up to 20 minutes, with another 10 minutes passing before police shot and wounded the assailant.

A brave 53-year-old resident pounced on the gunman as he reloaded his automatic rifle in a move which likely also saved dozens of lives in the southern suburb of Helwan, said the witnesses.

Courageous residents pelted the assailant with rocks and soda cans as he walked away from the church, occasionally pausing to fire warning shots from his AK-47 rifle.

The attack began at around 10.30am when Mass at the Mar Mina church had just finished and some worshippers were already heading home.

Magdy Adel, a 65-year-old Christian who runs a store near the church, sheltered five worshippers – three elderly women, one elderly man and a middle-aged woman – who took cover in his shop. He pulled down the store’s shutters and hid on the pavement behind a car to keep an eye on the attacker.

“The terrorist was very agitated when they closed the church’s iron gate and he could not go inside,” he said. “He had a lot of ammunition and kept shooting at the gate, killing some people inside.”

Another witness, Mustafa Mahmoud, was on the street a short distance from the church when the gunman opened fire. He first thought the gunman was a plainclothes policeman assigned to guard the church.

“His first…