Nigeria violence: More than 70 killed in Abuja bus blastAdvertisement Will Ross takes a closer look at the bomb site Continue reading the main story Nigeria under attack'I risked my life' Escape from terror Military divisions Terror badge of honour?
More than 70 people have been killed in a bomb blast at a crowded bus station on the outskirts of Nigeria's capital, Abuja, officials say.
The explosion happened as commuters were about to board buses and taxis to go to work in central Abuja, the BBC's Haruna Tangaza reports.
Eyewitnesses said there were dead bodies scattered around the area.
Suspicion immediately fell on the Boko Haram Islamist militant group, which has staged previous attacks in Abuja.
However, most of its attacks have been in the north-east of the country.
Officials earlier said two separate blasts had ripped through the terminal, but later said the damage may have been caused by just one bomb.
Abbas Idris, head of the Abuja Emergency Relief Agency, told the BBC that so far they have confirmed 71 people dead and 124 injured
Boko Haram and Al Qaeda are modern day version of the Assassin/Hashashin terrorist group that existed during the crusade in West Asia. In Vodoo a Boko is an evil priest or sorcerer. Nigerian islamist terrorist group is name Boko Haram.
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Nigeian president Goodluck Jonathan and Nigerian Senate President David Mark looking at Boko Haram truck bombing site.
Maiduguri (Nigeria) (AFP) - Heavily armed Boko Haram Islamists kidnapped more than 100 girls from a school in northeast Nigeria, sparking a search by soldiers to track down the attackers, a security source and witnesses said.
Related Stories
Bomb attack kills 71 at bus station near Nigeria capital AFP Suspected Islamist rebels abduct over 100 Nigerian schoolgirls: teacher Reuters Deadly blasts rocks Nigerian bus station AFP Nigeria vows to protect May "African Davos" in bomb-hit capital Reuters Suspected Islamists kill 19 in northern Nigeria AFP
The unprecedented mass abduction in Borno state came hours after a bomb blast ripped through a crowded bus station on the outskirts of Abuja, killing 75 people, the deadliest attack ever in Nigeria's capital.
The violence underscored the serious threat the Islamists pose to Africa's most populous country, with the group capable of carrying out large-scale attacks in remote areas and massive bombings in major urban centres.
Gunmen stormed the Government Girls Secondary School in the Chibok area of Borno after sundown on Monday, torching several buildings before opening fire on soldiers and police who were guarding the school, witnesses said.
They ultimately overpowered the guards and entered the school, said Emmanuel Sam, an education officer based in Chibok who fled to the state capital Maiduguri after the attack.
The girls were then forced onto trucks and driven away by the attackers, multiple witnesses said.
.. View gallery Islamists abduct 'many' girls from secondary … Map locating Chibok in Nigeria's Borno State, site of the abductions (AFP Photo/J-M.Cornu / J. J …
A security source who requested anonymity said more than 100 girls were taken and blamed the attack on Boko Haram, a radical group whose name means "Western education is forbidden".
"We were able to follow the path of the truck and we found it broke down deep in the bush," the source told AFP.
"We are now trying to locate the whereabouts of the abducted girls," he added.
Some of the schoolgirls narrowly escaped their kidnappers by jumping off a truck in the middle of the night before running back to Chibok.
One of those who escaped said their opportunity to flee came when some of the gunmen became distracted after one of the vehicles in the convoy broke down.
.. View gallery Vehicles burn after an attack in Abuja on April 14, … Vehicles burn after an attack in Abuja on April 14, 2014 (AFP Photo/Str)
"They tried to fix it," she told AFP by phone from Chibok on condition of anonymity. "It was at this moment that some of us jumped out of the vehicles and ran into the bush."
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton "strongly" condemned the abductions, saying the 28-nation bloc stands with Nigeria in its struggle against terrorism.
"I am concerned by the increasing frequency and spread of terrorist attacks," she said in a statement.
"The EU stands with the people and the government of Nigeria in the fight against terrorism and violence and for the rule of law and human rights," Ashton added.
Boko Haram is blamed for killing thousands of people across north and central Nigeria since 2009 in an uprising aimed at creating a strict Islamic state in the north.
.. View gallery Nigerian workers clean the site of a bomb blast in … Nigerian workers clean the site of a bomb blast in Abuja on April 15, 2014 (AFP Photo/)
The group has carried out scores of school attacks, spraying gunfire on students in their sleep and bombing educational buildings across the north.
But a mass kidnapping specifically targeting girls is unprecedented in the group's rebellion.
- Capital on 'red alert' -
Much of Boko Haram's recent violence has been concentrated in the northeast, the group's historic stronghold, where more than 1,500 people have been killed already this year.
The military, which launched a massive offensive in the region last year, had said it has confined the Islamists in the remote region, a claim discredited by Monday's mass bombing just a few kilometres from the seat of government.
The Abuja bombing "isn't a surprise", Alex Vines, head of the Africa programme at the London think-tank Chatham House told AFP.
"It's just a reminder that the threat remains. It is completely consistent with what we know about Boko Haram," he added.
The health ministry's casualty figures for the bombing include 75 dead with another 141 wounded, but spokesman Dan Nwomeh said the death toll may rise as more victims were identified -- a difficult task as their "bodies were totally dismembered".
Police in the capital have been put on "red alert," with security intensified "at all vulnerable targets," spokesman Frank Mba said.
Central Abuja, home to major hotels, foreign embassies and sprawling government complexes, has been mostly locked down for more than two years, with security reinforced after an August 2011 car bombing at the United Nations headquarters in the city, also blamed on Boko Haram.
The World Economic Forum said it would go ahead with an Africa conference scheduled for May 7 to May 9 in Abuja despite the bombing and pledged to protect delegates with "the largest security operation ever mounted in (Nigeria) for an international summit
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Abuja (AFP) - Seventy-one people died in a bomb blast in a packed bus station in Nigeria's capital Abuja -- the deadliest attack yet to strike the city -- with the president blaming the explosion on Boko Haram Islamists.
Related Stories
US denounces 'senseless' Nigeria bombing AFP Nigeria bus station bombing kills 71 on edge of capital Reuters Deadly blasts rocks Nigerian bus station AFP Police: Blast in Nigerian capital kills 71 Associated Press Islamists abduct more than 100 girls from Nigeria school AFP
The bomb, which also injured 124 people, rocked the Nyanya station on Abuja's southern outskirts at 6:45 am (0545 GMT) as it was filled with morning commuters, leaving body parts scattered across the terminal and destroying dozens of vehicles.
Previously, much of the recent violence by the Boko Haram insurgency has been in the remote northeast, though some have targeted the central capital.
The United States condemned the attack, denouncing it as "senseless" and called for a full investigation into it.
"We are outraged by this senseless act of violence against innocent civilians," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters.
"We continue to stand with the Nigerian government and people as they grapple with violent extremism," she said, also condemning a series of attacks on three villages in Borno State over the weekend.
.. View gallery Nigeria blast Map locating an explosion at a crowded bus station in Nigeria on Monday. 90 x 82 mm (AFP Photo/)
The South African government, in a statement, also condemned the attack, saying that it believed that "terrorism, in any form and from whichever quarter, cannot be condoned".
This major bombing, just a few kilometres (miles) from the seat of government, will raise further doubts about Nigeria's ability to contain the Islamist threat it is battling.
The explosion "emanated from a vehicle" parked within the station, said Charles Otegbade, head of search and rescue at the National Emergency Management Agency.
National police spokesman Frank Mba put the toll at 71 dead and 124 injured. The wounded were being treated in area hospitals.
Visiting the site, President Goodluck Jonathan vowed that Nigeria would overcome the brutal insurgency being waged by Boko Haram, blamed for killing thousands across the north and centre of the country since 2009.
.. View gallery Burnt-out vehicles after an attack at a bus station … Burnt-out vehicles after an attack at a bus station packed with morning commuters in Abuja on April …
"The issue of Boko Haram is quite an ugly history within this period of our own development," Jonathan said. "But we will get over it... The issue of Boko Haram is temporary."
The Islamists, who say they want to create a strict Islamic state in northern Nigeria, have previously set off bombs in and around the capital, including a 2011 car bombing at the United Nations headquarters that killed at least 26 people.
- Charred bodies removed -
Monday's explosions at the bus station left a hole roughly 1.2 metres (four feet) deep and spread debris across the compound, an AFP reporter and witnesses said.
"I saw bodies taken away in open trucks," said witness Yakubu Mohammed, describing grisly remains that "were burnt and in pieces".
.. View gallery Vehicles burn after an attack in Abuja on April 14, … Vehicles burn after an attack in Abuja on April 14, 2014 (AFP Photo/Str)
Nyanya is a densely populated suburb of Abuja, filled with government and civil society workers who cannot afford the city centre's exorbitant rents.
Bus parking zones have been among Boko Haram's preferred targets, including a bombing at a terminal in the northern city of Kano last year that killed more than 40 people.
- Security crackdown -
Jonathan, who is expected to face a tough re-election battle next year, has faced intense criticism over the continuing Boko Haram violence.
With the recent unrest concentrated in the northeast, the president had been able to claim that progress was being made in the battle against the Islamist rebels.
.. View gallery Policemen investigate at the site of an attack at Nyanya … Policemen investigate at the site of an attack at Nyanya bus station in Abuja on April 14, 2014 (AFP …
But an escalation of attacks in or near Abuja would pile further pressure on the embattled president.
Prominent targets within Abuja have been locked down since the UN bombing and checkpoints are set up daily on major roads throughout the city.
Security measures are however less rigid in areas outside the city centre.
Following Monday's attack, police chief Mohammed Abubakar ordered officers "to intensify surveillance on all vulnerable targets within Abuja", Mba said.
But a temporary security crackdown will not be enough to repair Jonathan's declining credibility in the Boko Haram conflict, according to Adetokunbo Mumuni of the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project.
Last May, the military launched a massive offensive to crush the Islamist uprising and has described Boko Haram as being in disarray and on the defensive. But the success of that campaign was being questioned after Monday's bloodshed.
"It is obvious the attack is aimed at sending a message to the government that the insurgents are very much around and can strike at any time they choose," said Abubakar Tsav, a retired police chief and security analyst.
Experts warn that force alone cannot stem the bloodshed and have called for a major outreach to dejected and deeply impoverished youths from the north who fill Boko Haram's ranks.
Nigeria is Africa top oil producer and largest economy, but more than 80 percent of its 170 million people live on less than $2 per day.
Analysts say that the Boko Haram unrest has partly stalled economic growth and scared away potential investors.
"The government is doing everything to make sure that we move our country forward," Jonathan affirmed after the attack.
The US State Department has offered a $7 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau.
Posts: 5374 | From: sepedat/sirius | Registered: Jul 2012
| IP: Logged |
Hunters, others rescue 80 abducted Borno school girls
Written by Akinlolu Oluwamuyiwa
A GLIMMER of hope appeared on the horizon for the abducted students of Government Girls' Secondary School in Chibok Local Council of Borno State as 80 of them were reportedly rescued Wednesday morning by a vigilance group, local hunters and soldiers.
The joint security team pursued the insurgents in search of about 100 school girls they abducted.
Meanwhile, the Federal Government Wednesday confirmed that it had little information on how to rescue the kidnapped students as their whereabouts is unknown.
In a related development, the Borno State Government Wednesday pledged the reward of N50 million for any information that could lead to "immediate safe release" of the abducted female students.
Governor Kashim Shettima made the pledge at a news conference at the Government House, Maiduguri, adding that he had instructed security agencies to ensure that the school girls are rescued unharmed.
Similarly, civil society delegation to the National Conference has called on the Federal Government to close the borders between Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroun due to the lingering insecurity.
In the same vein, about 20 villagers, including a monarch, were killed after gunmen, suspected to be Boko Haram terrorists, attacked two villages in Borno State on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, security sources and witnesses said.
The insurgents, who were carrying the school girls in Tipper lorries, were alleged to have got stuck in the bush while they were trying to crossover some muddy area between Chibok and Askira/Uba.
In a report by a local website, Nigerian Eye, the father of one of the rescued girls, Malam Ali Iliya, said his daughter told him that when the trailer got stuck, some of them jumped out and ran for their lives.
"They were scattered in the bush when the vigilance group and local hunters found them. Some of them were wounded, some were with fracture, which I believe was as a result of jumping from the high vehicle, but we are happy that our children have been rescued.
"Now, we are praying for those who are still with the Boko Haram; our prayer is that every father will have his child back", he said.
He added that his daughter, Hajara, was sound and healthy but weak, stressing that "our children told us that when they started running, the insurgents didn't shoot them.
"They allowed those who could run to go but those who could not run either as a result of fear or wound are still with them in the bush. My daughter said the abductors were over one hundred and that the girls were 243; she said the insurgents asked them to count themselves."
A statement by Director, Defence Information/Co-ordinator, Maj.-Gen. Chris Olukolade, collaborated the online report as he said that more of the abducted students were Wednesday freed as troops pursuing the terrorists close in on the den of those believed to have carried out the attack.
The statement said that in another development, troops deployed to restore law and order in Wukari, Taraba State, have apprehended 14 armed men who were involved in the fighting during the civil disturbances in the town early in the week. The fighting resulted in the burning of no fewer than 25 houses and displacement of over 200 persons.
He said: "The troops also captured a building where arms were being fabricated. Four locally-fabricated machine guns, one sub-machine gun, 4 single barrel guns as well as 21 live cartridges were recovered in the process. Normalcy has since been restored as troops maintain patrols of the locality.
Meanwhile, security forces have been directed to continue with the tempo of offensive on all the terrorists' enclaves anywhere in the country."
Yesterday's meeting, according to Maku, was devoted to the Monday's bomb blast at the Nyanya motor park on the outskirts of the federal capital city where 75 people were officially confirmed to have lost their lives and over 126 persons sustained various degrees of injury.
Information Minister, Labaran Maku, while briefing State House Correspondents after the weekly Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting presided over by President Goodluck Jonathan, reiterated the commitment of the Federal Government to protect lives of all Nigerians irrespective of where they live.
Maku, who addressed the media alongside his FCT and Minister of State for Health counterparts, Bala Mohammed and Dr. Khaliru Alhassan in that order, however slammed the media for what he described as insensitive reportage of the Nyanya bomb blast.
Maku said that the Council has not been given full detailed reports on the kidnapping but stated that efforts are on to set the school girls free even as he condemned the idea of resorting to kidnapping innocent school children who are defenseless.
His words: "The criminality of kidnapping young children is what makes the terrorism in Nigeria as one of the worst. What will they be doing with these young children if they claim that their purpose is on religious piety. Unfortunately, this has happened but we will make sure that we get the children back. We will make sure that further harm is not done to these children."
He added that because there are schools spread across the zone, it was therefore not physically possible for adequate security to be concentrated in every school all over the North-East, adding that although this has happened, government will make sure that less harm comes to these children.
"We assure Nigerians that we will make sure that we get those girls back quickly. Our most important concern is to make sure that further harm is not done to those children. We are pushing their abductors and we will get them very soon", he said.
Maku, who addressed the bomb blast incidence and its reportage, said that FEC deliberated on the way the media reported the incident, especially with the show of the gory pictures of the victims, which he noted, was not professionally handled.
"Let me also say that we observe with regret that in spite of the great job the media has continued to do, we saw that the way this incident was reported in the last two days has been very insensitive.
"One of the things that we will require to avoid as much as possible is that we should avoid negative comments that will discourage security agencies."
He added that the nation's victory over terrorism will depend on how united the people are to confront the issue, adding that "what terrorists want is to divide the people and make them helpless."
The conference delegates in a statement by its leaders; Femi Falana, Abiola Akiode and Jaye Gaskia respectively, expressed worries over the level of insecurity in the country, stressing:" We are concerned about the deepening sense of hopelessness among ordinary Nigerians with respect to the security situation in the country."
In solidarity with other delegates to the National Conference who have unanimously passed strongly-worded resolutions on the issue, the civil society delegates condemned the perpetrators of the attacks on Nigerians, especially the Monday bomb blast in Nyanya near Abuja.
While condoling with the families who lost their loved ones, the delegates noted with disapproval continuous attacks on school children and the abduction of young girls by the insurgents. It, therefore, called for immediate overhaul of the security forces.
"For a country that has been buffeted by such acts of terror on such a magnitude in the past few years, we condemn without hesitation the absolute absence of preparedness capacity on the part of emergency services to deal with the aftermath of the Nyanya bomb blast. We note that victims, both the dead and survivors, were transported on the back of trucks, pick-up vans, and even wheel barrows. The emergency services were simply not prepared and were overwhelmed with the scale of the catastrophe."
"We note that such an incident occurred despite the several check-points between Nasarawa State and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and condemn the apparent failure of intelligence and the seeming continued lack of co-ordination among the armed and security forces."
"Furthermore, we are deeply worried about the ease with which insurgents in very visible convoys enter into communities and unleash such violence on innocent citizens without detection by security and armed forces. In particular in this regard, we note the continuous attack on schools and the massacre of children and abduction of young girls by these enemies of humanity who have decided to wage an unrelenting war on the poor", the statement read.
Given that according to our constitution the duty of the state and any government is to ensure the security and well-being of citizens, the delegates therefore, urged the Federal Government to immediately ensure "the complete closure of the borders with Cameroun, Chad and Niger Republics; the immediate deployment of security personnel and the armed forces, along with the deployment of modern surveillance technology to monitor and patrol our borders; immediate overhaul of the security and armed forces to refocus and reorganise the war against the perpetrators of terrorism."
In one of the attacks, the gunmen on Wednesday morning at about 7.00 a.m. stormed Wala Village, killing 18 villagers and injuring several others.
Wala Village is in Gwoza Local Council, some 130 kilometres southwest of Maiduguri, the Borno State capital.
A local council official, who does not want to be named for security reasons, said: "We are in difficult times in Gwoza Local Council; deaths and killings have become a daily affair; 18 people were killed in Wala this morning by the Boko Haram gunmen."
A senior officer of the Department of State Security Service, (DSS) also confirmed the killing in Wala; but asked not to be quoted.
"We have just received the report from our officers in Gwoza that the Boko Haram gunmen had attacked Wala village and killed 18 poor souls there; it is rather unfortunate and sad development despite our efforts up here", he said.
The DSS officer also confirmed that some 12 hours earlier, another set of gunmen attacked Sabon-Kasuawa Village in Hawul Local Council, 210km south of Maiduguri, where they killed a local monarch district head and his guard.
A politician, Hyeldi Bwala, confirmed on phone that the gunmen attacked the monarch shortly after he returned from the mosque where he went to observe the Tuesday night prayers at about 7.30 p.m.
"They simply walked right into the palace and shot him in his bedroom. And on their way out, they also shot his guard before fleeing into the dark night", said Bwala.
Wala Village is also about 130 kilometres away from Chibok town where over 100 secondary school girls were abducted on Monday night.
-------------------- Lionz Posts: 7419 | From: North America | Registered: Mar 2009
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic