The assailants started shooting at people who were outside the church because the building was too small and could not contain all the attendees. They also threw hand grenades. “We are all shocked, everybody is shocked,” said Moses. “We don’t understand why. Why to kill people who are praying—just innocent people who are praying?”

At least 24 people are feared killed and more than 100 injured following a fresh outbreak of violence in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR).

Until recent weeks, the capital had been considered a safe haven in the war-torn country: the only place the government is in control, with three-quarters of the landlocked nation occupied by armed groups.

But Tuesday’s attack, in which a Catholic priest was among 16 killed at one church, has shattered this sense of tranquillity. It brought back memories of the earliest days of the conflict, when Séléka rebels entered the capital in March 2013, and the failed attempt by self-defense militias (known as Anti-Balaka) to oust the rebels from the capital in December 2013.

In fact, the same Catholic church suffered a similar attack in May 2014, when a priest was among 18 killed. The CAR currently ranks No. 35 on Open Doors’s list of the 50 countries where it’s hardest to be a Christian.

On Tuesday, as President Faustin-Archange Touadéra and his government were attending the official May 1 ceremony marking International Workers Day on the capital’s Avenue of Martyrs, thousands of people from the Diocese of Bangui gathered for a Mass at Notre Dame de Fatima (Our Lady of Fatima) Church, for “oath-taking” on the occasion of the anniversary of St. Joseph.

Some officials, including Tina Touadéra, the First Lady, and Francis Bozizé, the son of ex-president Francois Bozizé (ousted by Séléka in March 2013), were among the attendees.

A number of priests from other parishes also attended, including Albert Toungoumalé-Baba, vicar of St. Mathias and chaplain of the Fraternité St. Joseph movement. He was the leading priest of the celebration.

It was about 10 a.m., just after the homily, when the first gunshots and grenades erupted in the compound of the parish, creating panic among the worshipers. Some of them managed to flee, but others were hit by bullets and grenades.

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