Nine Years After the Ozubulu Church Massacre: A Town’s Search for Justice

It was August 6, 2017, when gunmen opened fire inside St. Philip’s Catholic Church in Ozubulu, Anambra State. At least 13 worshippers died and dozens were injured during what was meant to be a quiet Sunday Mass. Investigators later linked the attack to a bitter feud between two Ozubulu natives living in South Africa, rather than terrorism or banditry as some first claimed. Despite arrests and court hearings, the alleged masterminds remain free and survivors still light candles each August to remember the victims. St. Philip’s has been rebuilt and reopened, but the community’s calls for accountability go unanswered. Every memorial mass brings fresh questions: Who ordered the killings? Why does impunity endure? I see a troubling pattern in the Southeast, where tribal loyalty too often shields perpetrators. Initial outrage blamed Fulani attackers for this massacre, and when another outrage—a mass body dump in Anambra—shifted from blaming the army to local police officers, calls for justice faded. How long will true justice be denied in the name of ethnicity and power?

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