UN condemns Palm Sunday `terrorist act' on Indonesian church

A Security Council press statement denounced the attack as a “reprehensible” act of terrorism and reiterated that “any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation.”

The UN Security Council late Tuesday condemned a bombing at an Indonesian church on Palm Sunday as a “cowardly terrorist attack” and called for the perpetrators, organizers, financiers and sponsors to be held accountable.

Members of a police bomb squad inspect the wreckage of a motorbike used to carry out Sunday's suicide bomb attack at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Cathedral in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, Monday, March 29, 2021. Two attackers believed to be members of a militant network that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group blew themselves up outside the packed Roman Catholic cathedral during a Palm Sunday Mass on Indonesia's Sulawesi island, wounding a number of people, police said. (AP Photo/Masyudi S. Firmansyah) (AP)

Indonesian officials said Monday that a recently married couple with suspected militant links used pressure cooker bombs to blow themselves up outside the Roman Catholic cathedral. The attack wounded 20 people, including four church guards, and broke windows at the church and nearby buildings in Makassar, the capital of South Sulawesi province.

A Security Council press statement denounced the attack as a “reprehensible” act of terrorism and reiterated that “any acts of terrorism are criminal and unjustifiable, regardless of their motivation.”

The council reaffirmed the need for all countries to combat “threats to international peace and security caused by terrorist acts.”