Death toll in Maiduguri Mosque bombing rises to 28

At least 28 people were killed in a suicide bombing at a mosque in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, on Friday, raising fresh security concerns after a wave of similar attacks.

Bomb Scene

The attack happened shortly after 5:00 am (0400 GMT) in the Jidari area of the Borno state capital, which has previously been targeted by Boko Haram militants.

Maiduguri has now been hit six times this month, killing a total of 76 people, according to an AFP tally, underscoring an increased risk to civilians after similar strikes in neighbouring states and near the capital, Abuja.

Umar Sani, a civilian vigilante assisting the military in the counter-insurgency, and local resident Musa Sheriff both told AFP there were two blasts at the mosque.

“People from various mosques nearby rushed to the scene to assist the victims,” said Sani.

“I was involved in the evacuation. We counted 28 dead bodies apart from the two bombers, who were identifiable by the mutilation of their bodies.

“Over 20 other people were injured.”

Sheriff, who said he escaped with his life as he was late for prayers, gave a similar account.

Both men also said two other people were arrested and handed over to the military for questioning after they were seen apparently celebrating following the blasts.

The two men were “standing from afar, hugging each other like a celebration, chanting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest)”, said Sani.

“The rescuers apprehended them. They used ropes to tie them and they confirmed that two of their comrades carried out the attacks. They were unrepentant,” he added.

“To them it was a mission accomplished,” said Sheriff.

– Security concerns –

Initial reports of the attack from Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said only six people were killed and 17 others injured.

Medical sources at the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital and Borno State Specialist Hospital later gave a lower toll of 19 dead.

There are frequently conflicting death tolls in the insurgency and official statements often downplay the number of casualties.

Nigeria’s military has claimed a series of successes against Boko Haram, recapturing territory seized by the militants last year, as well as the mass surrender of fighters.

Senior officers have characterised the increase in suicide bombings against “soft” targets as a sign of the group’s desperation.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has said the military is on track to meet a year-end deadline to bring the six-year insurgency to an end.

At least 17,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million made homeless by the violence, which has spread into neighbouring Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

But the latest bombings in Maiduguri will likely raise questions about how militants are able to carry out such attacks on a regular basis.

Friday’s attack fits into a grim pattern of targeting places of worship and crowded spots such as markets and bus stations using multiple bombers to maximise casualties.

On October 1, a wave of suicide and bomb attacks left 10 dead in the Ajilari Cross area of the city, which was hit again on October 13, killing four.

On October 15, two suicide bombers hit a mosque in Molai, on the outskirts of Maiduguri, killing 30.

The following day, three bombers also struck just before morning prayers in nearby Umarari. Four people were killed.

Last weekend, soldiers foiled a suspected suicide attack at the city’s main army base.

Boko Haram — using the name Islamic State West Africa Province — claimed responsibility for suicide bomb attacks near Abuja on October 2 that killed 18.

Five men appeared in court on Thursday in connection with the blasts.

Death toll in Maiduguri Mosque bombing rises to 28

Suicide bombers disguised as worshippers kill many in mosque

Dozens of worshippers were killed Thursday when two suicide bombers blew themselves up in a mosque in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, witnesses said.

Bomb Scene

“All the people in the mosque died. Not a single one escaped,” said Muhtari Ahmadu, a trader near the scene.

“We counted 42 dead bodies outside the mosque,” added Amadu Marte, a vigilante supporting the security forces in the fight against the Islamist Boko Haram group, which has carried out repeated attacks in the region.

Borno state police confirmed that the mosque was hit by twin bombings but gave a lower toll of about 14 dead.

Following the explosions, the mosque collapsed and injured “many people praying”, the police said in a statement.

“Casualties have been evacuated to UMTH (University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital) and specialist hospitals in Maiduguri,” it added.

The bombers slipped into the mosque disguised as worshippers, witnesses said.

One of the attackers set off the first blast when he entered the mosque, they said. The second bomber detonated his explosives soon after, when many had rushed to the scene to help the first victims.

“When rescuers and sympathizers gathered in front of the place, the second one went off, killing many of them,” Marte said.

The blasts occurred around 6:30pm (1730 GMT) in Molai, in the western suburbs of Maiduguri, where worshippers had gathered for evening prayers, the witnesses said.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack but suspicion fell on Boko Haram, which was founded in Borno’s state capital Maiduguri in 2009.

The city has been hit repeatedly since President Muhammadu Buhari came to power on May 29 with a vow to crush the insurgency.

Boko Haram claimed responsibility for three suicide attacks in the satellite towns of Kuje and Nyanya outside Nigeria’s capital Abuja on October 2, which killed a total of 18 people and injured 41.

Nigeria’s military claims the Islamist militants are a spent force and that troops have driven them from their camps and occupied territory in the remote region.

But guerrilla-style attacks have continued, including across the border. At the weekend, 41 people were killed in triple explosions in Baga Sola, on the Chadian side of Lake Chad, where Nigeria meets Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

The four countries have launched a joint offensive against the Islamists.

Their mission received a boost on Wednesday when US President Barack Obama said he was deploying up to 300 military personnel to Cameroon for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance operations against Boko Haram insurgents.

At least 17,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million made homeless since Boko Haram began its bloody campaign for an

Suicide bombers disguised as worshippers kill many in mosque

Three injured as failed suicide bomber targets mosque in Potiskum

A botched suspected Boko Haram suicide attack targeting a group of Shiite Muslims injured three people in northeast Nigeria on Monday, witnesses told AFP.

The would-be bomber detonated his explosives a few metres (yards) from an open-air mosque in the Dogo Tebo area of Potiskum shortly after afternoon prayers.

“Three worshippers were hit by shrapnel and sustained mild injuries while the bomber’s thighs and legs were blown off,” said local resident Mukhtar Ubale in an account supported by two others.

Another resident who witnessed the explosion, Zakari Kabiru, said the bomber, thought to be aged about 30, was taken to hospital but his chances of survival were slim.

“Only his torso was intact but the lower parts of his body were shattered,” he said, blaming the Sunni jihadist group Boko Haram for the attack.

Boko Haram, whose insurgency to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria has killed at least 15,000 since 2009, condemns Shias as heretics who should be killed.

The group has carried out several suicide and bombing attacks on Potiskum, which is the commercial hub of Yobe state and one of the worst hit by the violence.

Last November at least 15 people were killed and dozens injured from a suicide attack on a Shia Muslim Ashura festival procession, which marks the death of Hussein, grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

Gun attacks by soldiers that followed left several others dead.

‎In July 2014, a blast rocked the same Saqafa mosque shortly after evening prayers, leaving four dead.

A second explosion went off moments later at a mosque in the town’s Anguwar Bolawa area, in the compound of the chief imam, killing at least two worshippers.

A four-nation military offensive of Nigeria and its neighbours has pushed Boko Haram out of captured territory since February.

Security analysts have warned the group would revert to its previous tactics of suicide and bomb attacks against so-called “soft targets” such as crowded markets and busy transport hubs.

 

Three injured as failed suicide bomber targets mosque in Potiskum

Fashola threatens to sanction churches, mosques over noise pollution

The Lagos State Government on Tuesday threatened to sanction any church or mosque found disturbing public peace with noise from their loud speakers.

The Commissioner for the Environment, Mr Tunji Bello, issued the threat at his Ministry’s 2014 Ministerial Press Briefing in Ikeja.

Governor Babatunde Fashola of Lagos State 

He said that government had been inundated with complaints from residents living near some religious places disturbing their neighbourhoods with noise and it would no longer watch the trend continue.

Bello said that worshipping God did not have to extend as far as encroaching on the rights of others to peace.

“It is not right for mosques and churches to disturb other people with noise from their activities, simply because they are worshipping God.

“Worshipping God should not come with so much discomfort to others.

“The ugly situation we have in some parts of the state is between four and five churches and mosques on one street blaring so much noise at the same time, thereby disturbing the peace of others.

“This is unacceptable and we can no longer tolerate this,’’ he said.

The commissioner also said the government was no more comfortable with the volume of noise emanating from markets, club houses and factories, saying it might not hesitate to sanction operators of such places.

He said the government had sealed no fewer than four churches, three hotels and one factory last year for noise pollution.

The commissioner also warned residents, who were in the habit defecating in open places, to stop the act or incur the wrath of the law.

He said open defecation and urination was becoming a problem in the state, as it constituted a threat to public health and the environment.

“People just defecate openly anywhere and I think this is not good at all.

“Very soon, we will begin full enforcement of the law on open defecation and anybody caught will be dealt with,” Bello said.

The commissioner said the government planned to build modern toilets across the state to forestall open defecation in public places.

He also warned residents against indiscriminate dumping of refuse in drains and noted that with the volume of rain expected this year, such actions could result in flooding.

Bello said the government had embarked on massive desilting of drains across the state and was expanding the capacities of canals to guard against flooding.

No fewer than five million trees had so far been planted in the state, the commissioner said, to mitigate the harmful effects of climate change.

He said that the government was also exploring advocacy and other measures to address the problem of flooding.(NAN)

Fashola threatens to sanction churches, mosques over noise pollution

Boko Haram gunmen kill 20 worshippers in mosque

Yobe State – Suspected insurgents of the Islamist sect, Boko Haram, brutally disrupted yesterday’s early morning prayers (Zuhr) at Buni Gari village in Yobe State, killing at least 20 worshippers.

Boko Haram leader, Shekau Abubakar

The worshippers were just gathering for the prayer, the first of the five daily by Muslims, when the gun wielding insurgents opened fire, eye witness Musa Ibrahim said.

Buni Gari is about 100 kilometers south of Damaturu, the state capital.

Mosques have frequently been targeted by militants who threaten Muslim clerics who preach against their extremist doctrine.

More than 1,200 civilians have been killed this year amid more frequent and deadlier attacks by the sect.

And overnight, gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram members swept across the border into northern Cameroun and abducted two Italian priests and a Canadian nun in Maroua.

The London-based human rights organization, Amnesty International, in a report last week claimed that more than 1500 people were killed in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states since the beginning of this year.

It cited the March 14 Boko Haram attack on Giwa Barracks, the largest military facility in Maiduguri, and said that the sect members ‘staged a successful break into the detention centre and released all of those being held.”

It said that Boko Haram “gave those freed the option of joining them or going home. Most chose the home option. Boko Haram then withdrew. Shortly thereafter the security forces reoccupied the facility.

“With the help of the Civilian Joint Task Force, a locally based vigilante group, the security forces then hunted down all of those who had escaped and murdered most of them.”

Amnesty, quoting ‘eye witnesses’ estimated that over 600 people were killed.

Besides, it said that “many of the inmates were emaciated and without shoes. Many also had scars indicating abuse. All of the inmates were unarmed.”

The Amnesty report also profiled rampant human rights violations by Boko Haram.

The Defence Headquarters, responding to the Amnesty allegations at the weekend, said it was launching an investigation into the claims.

The DHQ said the investigation was to establish the veracity of the claim and for the authorities to take necessary action to address any human rights breach by troops.

The Defence spokesman, Major General Chris Olukolade said that while the Amnesty International report did not reflect the true position of things in the military operation, the authorities found the allegation too confounding to ignore.

He said:”This report is a new dimension to the well-known fact that the security operation in that part of the country was necessitated by the need to address the gross abuse of human rights being perpetrated against Nigerians by the terrorists.

“It is noteworthy that despite the peculiar asymmetric nature of the security challenge, measures have been put in place to ensure compliance with tenets of human rights and rules of engagement by troops involved in the conduct of the mission.

“Apart from inculcating the necessity for observance of human rights in troops, regular programmes have been conducted to review the human rights situation related to the conduct of the operations.”

The military said it was in adherence to respect for human rights that most of those apprehended in the counter-terrorist operations are being kept in custody.

He said the detention facilities have been visited by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) including International Committee of the Red Cross and others to verify the conditions of detainees, adding: “this is even in the face of destruction of relevant amenities by the terrorists who have burnt down prisons, courts and government facilities in that part of the country in the course of their ceaseless attacks.

“The claim contained in the Amnesty International’s report attributing gross abuses of human right of Nigerians to both the terrorists and the security forces is quite confounding.”

Italy’s foreign ministry said yesterday that two Italian priests and a Canadian nun were kidnapped overnight by gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram members in northern Cameroun.

The attack occurred in Maroua, close to the border with Nigeria, according to Italy’s Ansa news agency.

The Islamist sect, Boko Haram, freely operates across Nigeria’s Northeast and Cameroun’s Northwest.

The Italian foreign ministry said that two priests from Italy’s northern Vicenza region had been seized, but gave no other details.

Armed gunmen pulled up to the buildings where the priests and the nun were staying around 2am and ransacked them before taking the hostages, added the Ansa news agency.

The attack comes three months after the release of French priest Georges Vandenbeusch, who was kidnapped in the same region in mid-November 2013 and then held in Nigeria by Boko Haram.

One of the two priests taken on Friday night had been in Cameroun for more than six years while the second had arrived around a year ago, Ansa reported.

Authorities in Vincenza, where the priests were from, were not immediately available for comment.

Boko Haram gunmen kill 20 worshippers in mosque