Two bomb blasts ripped through the outskirts of Nigerian capital Abuja on Friday, including one target hit twice before by Boko Haram militants, after separate strikes in the northeast that killed at least 21.
Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) warned of casualties from the simultaneous explosions in Kuje and Nyanya and likened the explosives used to those in areas worst-hit by the six-year insurgency.
“It was not an accidental explosion...definitely it was a bomb,” NEMA spokesman Manzo Ezekiel said.
Photo: Reuters
“At this time we can only confirm the explosions. Our officers are on the ground. There are a number of dead, but we can’t say anything about numbers now,” he said.
The attacks came a day after at least 10 people were killed when four suicide bombers blew themselves up in the Borno state capital, Maiduguri, and 11 villagers died in neighboring Adamawa state.
The bombings underscored the persistent threat posed by the militants, despite claims of military successes in recent weeks in driving them out of captured territory, arrests and mass surrenders.
An AFP tally puts the death toll at more than 1,260 since Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari took office on May 29.
CASUALTIES FEARED
Friday’s explosions happened near a police station in Kuje and at a bus stop in Nyanya at about 10:30pm.
Kuje, near Abuja’s airport, is about 40km west of the city center and seat of government. Its prison is reportedly holding dozens of Boko Haram prisoners captured by troops.
The same bus station in Nyanya, to the east, was hit twice last year. The first attack, on April 14 last year, left at least 75 dead and was claimed by the militants; the second, on May 1, left at least 16 dead.
SIMULTANEOUS BLASTS
Ezekiel said the latest blasts happened almost simultaneously and appeared to use “the same kind of explosives used in the insurgency” in Nigeria’s northeast.
Abuja was last attacked on June 25 last year, when 22 people were killed in a blast at a popular shopping center in the heart of the capital.
Boko Haram later claimed the attack and a separate strike later that day in the Apapa port district of the financial capital, Lagos, in the southwest.
CIVILIAN TARGETS
Buhari came to power vowing to crush the insurgency, criticizing what he said was poor leadership by his predecessor former Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan, that had created a demoralized and under-equipped military.
He has given his top commanders until early next month to end the fighting, which has claimed at least 17,000 lives and made more than 2.5 million homeless since 2009, creating a major humanitarian crisis.
However, the threat to civilians remains and Amnesty International said this week more needs to be done to protect ordinary people, putting the death toll this year alone at about 3,500.
The rebels, who earlier this year aligned themselves to the Islamic State group which controls swathes of territory in Syria and Iraq, have increasingly reverted to guerrilla-style urban warfare tactics.
Targets have included crowded bus stations, places of worship and markets, spreading fear among local populations.
Buhari himself has accepted preventing such attacks will be a challenge and recognized the need to tackle the root causes of the insurgency — namely social and economic deprivation in the mainly Muslim north.
Deradicalization programs, including at Kuje prison, are part of the strategy to reintegrate former Boko Haram members into society.
However, the group’s shadowy leader, Abubakar Shekau, recently dismissed army claims it was a spent force and in “disarray.”
A five-nation force comprising troops from Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroon and Benin is due to deploy soon, in recognition of the regional threat posed by the group after repeated cross-border attacks.
Niger itself suffered an alleged Boko Haram attack late on Thursday, with two of the country’s soldiers being killed in a militant ambush near its border with Nigeria, according to the defense ministry.
SEEKING CHANGE: A hospital worker said she did not vote in previous elections, but ‘now I can see that maybe my vote can change the system and the country’ Voting closed yesterday across the Solomon Islands in the south Pacific nation’s first general election since the government switched diplomatic allegiance from Taiwan to Beijing and struck a secret security pact that has raised fears of the Chinese navy gaining a foothold in the region. The Solomon Islands’ closer relationship with China and a troubled domestic economy weighed on voters’ minds as they cast their ballots. As many as 420,000 registered voters had their say across 50 national seats. For the first time, the national vote also coincided with elections for eight of the 10 local governments. Esther Maeluma cast her vote in the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was