• Mourners express outrage
President Muhammadu Buhari, President Barack Obama of the United States and Pope Francis yesterday joined other world leaders in denouncing Friday night’s wave of bloody attacks in Paris that left over 127 people dead.
Mourners across the globe reacted with tears, shows of solidarity and condemnations of the brains behind the assaults for which ISIS claimed responsibility.
Buhari expressed shock and profound sadness over the dastardly and heinous terrorist attacks on innocent civilians.
He sent sympathy on behalf of his government and Nigerians to President Francois Hollande and the people of France.
He also extended sincere condolences to the families, relatives and friends of the victims of the s attacks.
The bloodshed, he said, constituted an unacceptable affront to all human values and civilised norms.
The President declared that Nigeria, as a country which has borne the terrible human cost of terrorist attacks, stands in full solidarity with the government and people of France as they mourn those who lost their lives in the incident.
He asked all peace-loving nations of the world to intensify ongoing multilateral cooperation and collaborative actions aimed at bringing the scourge of international terrorism to a speedy end for the benefit of all nations.
President Obama, in a solidarity address, at the White House said: “It’s an attack not just on the people of France. But this is an attack on all of humanity and the universal values we share.
”We’re going to do whatever it takes to work with the French people and with nations around the world to bring these terrorists to justice and to go after any terrorist networks that go after our people.
“We are reminded in this time of tragedy that the bonds of liberty are not just the values French people share but we share.”
In London, where 52 people were killed and hundreds wounded in a series of coordinated suicide bombings in 2005, British Prime Minister David Cameron said: “We will do whatever we can to help.”
Queen Elizabeth II said she and her spouse Prince Philip were “deeply shocked”.
Jose Manuel Garcia Margallo, the foreign minister of Spain, where 191 people were killed in train bombings in 2004, raised the specter of a jihadist attack.
“All of this confirms that we are facing an unprecedented challenge, a hugely cruel challenge,” he told public television TVE.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose country was hit by two major attacks in 2006 and 2008 that saw a total of 355 people killed, said on Twitter the “news from Paris is anguishing & dreadful”.
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey, where twin bombings on a peace rally in Ankara last month killed 102 people, offered his condolences.
“As a country that knows very well the manner and consequences of terrorism, we understand perfectly the suffering that France is experiencing now,” he said.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani branded the attacks “crimes against humanity” as Tehran announced he would postpone a scheduled trip to Paris.
European Union Foreign Policy Chief Federica Mogherini tweeted that she was “in the process of following with pain and dread the events in Paris”.
“Europe is with France and the French people,” she said.
Angela Merkel, the Chancellor of neighboring Germany, said she was “profoundly shocked by the news and images from Paris” while Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders tweeted: “Shocked and appalled by new attacks in #Paris. Words are not enough.”
And in Australia, where a lone gunman reportedly shouting Islamist slogans killed a man outside police headquarters in Sydney last month, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said: “This is indeed a black Friday for France and for the world”.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull praised the French people for their response, describing France as “the home of freedom”.
“It is a global struggle for freedom against those who seek to suppress it and seek to assert some form of religious tyranny; a threat in the name of God but is truthfully the work of the devil,” he said.
He called the attacks “anguishing and dreadful.”
“We share the sadness and the pain of the French people,” said Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev.
“The Paris tragedy requires of us all to unite in the fight against extremism.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping said: “In these tragic times for the French people, I want… to condemn in the strongest ways this barbarous act.”
Pope Francis expressed his profound distress and solidarity with the casualties. “There cannot be justification, religious or human” for the attacks, he said.
Bouquets, candles and messages of condolence were laid at French embassies worldwide.
Buildings ranging from the Sydney Opera House in Australia to One World Trade Center in New York were lit up in the colours of the French flag.
In Madrid and Barcelona, hundreds stood for a minute’s silence outside city hall.
The coordinated killings reverberated around the world after the shootings by gunmen shouting “Allahu akbar”, explosions and a hostage-taking at a popular concert venue on Friday in the French capital.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for a “blessed attack on… Crusader France,” which included an assault on the national sports stadium and the Bataclan concert hall.
France is part of a US-led coalition conducting an air war against IS in Syria and Iraq where IS declared a caliphate last year after seizing swathes of both countries.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said that French policy had contributed to the “spread of terrorism” that culminated in the Paris attacks.
“The terrorist attacks that targeted the French capital Paris cannot be separated from what happened in the Lebanese capital Beirut lately and from what has been happening in Syria for the past five years and in other areas,” he said.
The outpouring of support for France generated massive amounts of posts on social media, with the hastags #prayforparis and #jesuisparis going viral.
