A suicide bomber has hit a church in northern Nigeria, killing at least one person and wounding several others.

The attacker struck the St. John's Catholic Church Sunday in the city of Bauchi.

There has been no immediate claim of responsibility. However, Bauchi has experienced a number of bombings and shootings blamed on the Boko Haram sect.

Boko Haram recognizes neither the Nigerian government nor the country's constitution, and says it wants to establish a strict Islamic state in the north. Human Rights Watch says the group has been responsible for more than 1,000 deaths over the past three years, mostly in the north.

The U.S. government has designated three Boko Haram leaders as terrorists.

Nigeria is Africa's most populous nation with 160 million people. It is divided roughly in half between Muslims, who live mainly in the north and Christians, mostly living in the south.