Twin car bombings in central Nigeria killed at least 118 people and brought entire buildings down on Tuesday, in the latest affront to the government’s internationally backed security crackdown.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan swiftly condemned the attack in the central city of Jos, calling it a “tragic assault on human freedom” and condemning the perpetrators as “cruel and evil.”
“President Jonathan assures all Nigerians that [the] government remains fully committed to winning the war against terror and... will not be cowed by the atrocities of enemies of human progress and civilization,” his office said.
Photo: EPA
However, the deadly strike and a suicide car bomb attack that killed four in the northern city of Kano on Sunday will raise fresh questions about the government’s grip on the country’s security.
Jonathan has already faced calls to quit for failing to ensure the safety of Nigerians and their property, as well as come under criticism for his lackluster response to the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram militants.
An international team, including specialists from the US, Britain, France and Israel, are involved in the hunt for the 223 teenagers, who were abducted in the remote town of Chibok on April 14.
In Jos, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) coordinator Mohammed Abdulsalam said buildings collapsed because of the intensity of the blasts in the New Abuja Market area, causing raging fires.
“More bodies may be in the debris,” he said. “The exact figure of the dead bodies recovered as at now is 118... 56 people were injured.”
The military said improvised explosive devices were hidden in a truck and a minibus. The second went off about 20 minutes after the first, as emergency service workers tended to the victims.
Most of the victims were women, added Pam Ayuba, spokesperson for Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang.
Plateau, of which Jos is the capital, falls in Nigeria’s so-called Middle Belt, where the mainly Christian south meets the Muslim-majority north.
The state and its religiously divided capital have seen deadly sectarian clashes in the past, as well as attacks from Boko Haram extremists, who have been waging an increasingly deadly insurgency in the north since 2009.
There was no immediate indication of who was responsible for the latest attacks, although the police in Kano said they had arrested two men in connection with Sunday’s bombing, without giving details.
Nigeria has concentrated on a mainly military response to Boko Haram in the northeast and on Tuesday, parliament approved a further six-month extension to a state of emergency in the states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa.
Jonathan had requested a continuation of the special powers because of what he said was the “daunting” security situation and mounting civilian casualties.
More than 2,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed this year alone as a result of the violence and the military’s response, according to NEMA, human rights and monitoring groups.
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