IMAN Chairman condemns spate of extremist attacks in Nigeria
Friday, 28 November 2014
Triple bomb blasts kill 120 outside Nigeria mosque
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Nigeria suffered one of its bloodiest terrorist attacks on Friday when three bombs exploded outside the Central Mosque in the northern city of Kano, killing at least 120 people.
The assault was timed to coincide with Friday prayers and the blasts injured another 260 worshippers.
No group has claimed responsibility, but the incident bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, a radical Islamist movement linked to al-Qaeda which has killed thousands of people in northern Nigeria and forced over a million to flee their homes.
The Emir of Kano, Mohammad Sanusi II, often attends prayers at the Central Mosque. An outspoken opponent of Boko Haram, he may have been an intended target. However, the Emir was believed to be in Saudi Arabia on Friday.
Three bombs detonated outside the Central Mosque in the heart of Kano as worshippers gathered. Eyewitnesses said that two devices exploded in the courtyard, while a third went off some distance away.
As the blasts tore through the crowd, gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons. "These people have bombed the mosque. I am face to face with people screaming," Chijjani Usman, one of the worshippers, told Reuters news agency.
Another eyewitness, Aminu Abdullahi, said: “Two bombs exploded, one after the other, in the premises of the Grand Mosque seconds after the prayers had started.”
Mr Abdullahi told Agence France Press news agency: "A third one went off in a nearby road. The blasts were followed by gunshots by the police to scare off potential attacks."
Officials later said that over 92 bodies had been recovered from the scene.
With almost ten million people, Kano is the biggest city in northern Nigeria and the sixth largest in the Muslim world. This assault on the mosque was the most serious incident in Kano since January 2012, when Boko Haram killed over 200 people during simultaneous attacks on police stations and government offices across the city.
Mr Sanusi became Emir in June after being sacked as governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank. He was removed from that post for daring to expose corrupt transactions by the state oil company.
Unlike some Muslim leaders in northern Nigeria, he is an outspoken critic of Boko Haram. Earlier this month, Mr Sanusi said: “These people, when they attack towns, they kill boys and enslave girls. People must stand resolute.” He urged citizens of Kano to “acquire what they can to defend themselves” and “not wait for soldiers to protect them”.
Nigeria’s corrupt and ineffective army has proved itself incapable of dealing with Boko Haram. Britain is considering whether to send dozens of military trainers to assist the country’s hapless security forces.
But Kano’s heritage as a centre of commerce and Muslim scholarship – along with the city’s sheer size – once drew a succession of foreign dignitaries. As Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher visited Kano in 1988.
The Queen toured the city in 1956 and paid a visit to the Central Mosque, which was the target of Friday's attack. On that occasion, she was welcomed by Emir Mohammad I, the grandfather of Mr Sanusi.
Boko Haram kills 48 Nigerian fishermen
YAHOO NEWS
Members of Nigeria's armed terrorist group Boko Haram have killed 48 people in an attack on fish sellers near the border with Chad, a media report said Sunday.
The attack took place Thursday, but the news took several days to come to light because Boko Haram has destroyed mobile phone masts in the area, BBC reported.
In Thursday's attack, the traders were on their way to Chad to buy fish when militants blocked their path near Doron Baga village, some 180km north of Maiduguri in Borno state.
It was the second major attack in two days in Borno state by Boko Haram.
The radicals attacked Azaya Kura Wednesday, just one day before the Nigerian government refused to extend the state of emergency imposed 18 months ago in Borno and two other northeastern states in the country due to the Boko Haram attacks.
The attack was apparently aimed at punishing the community after four insurgents were pointed out to soldiers and were shot dead.
Boko Haram has been waging an insurgency in Nigeria since 2009.
Boko Haram means "non-Islamic education is a sin" and the militants are fighting to impose Sharia law in Nigeria, a country that is mostly inhabited by Muslims in the north and by Christians in the south.
Security experts say that Boko Haram controls an area spread over 221,000 sq km in northeastern Nigeria and has killed over 3,000 people since the beginning of 2014.
Bomb blast in Nigerian school assembly kills 48 children
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At least 48 school students have been killed in Nigeria after a suicide bomber apparently dressed in school uniform detonated explosives in a packed assembly meeting.
Around 2,000 students - some as young as 11 - were waiting to hear the principal's Monday morning address when the blast ripped through the crowd. Eyewitnesses spoke of horrific scenes as body parts were scattered all over the school compound. The mood then turned to anger, with soldiers who turned up to secure the area pelted with rocks by locals, who accused them of failing to protect the area against terrorist attack.
The bombing took place at the Government Technical Science College in the city of Potiskum, a town of 200,000 in north-east Nigeria's Yobe state and a regular target of attacks by the Boko Haram Islamist group. Only last week, a suicide bomb in the same city killed 30 people taking part in a religious procession of moderate Muslims.
Musa Ibrahim Yahaya, survivor of the school bombing, spoke to the AP news agency from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for head wounds. "We were waiting for the principal to address us, around 7:30 a.m., when we heard a deafening sound and I was blown off my feet," he said. "People started screaming and running, I saw blood all over my body."
Aliyu Abubakar, a Potiskum resident, said he heard the explosion when he was dropping off his two sons at a nearby Islamic college. "One of my sons fell down, I came out dragged him in and we drove off back home," he said.
A morgue attendant said 48 bodies were brought to the hospital and all appeared to be between the ages of 11 and 20 years old. Hospital workers said the scale of the injuries was so bad that some of the injured were likely to need amputations.
Survivors said the bomber appeared to have hidden the explosives in a type of rucksack popular with students.
Nigeria's military recently reported finding a bomb factory where explosives were being sewn into rucksacks in the northern city of Kano.
While there has so far been no claim of responsibility for the attack, suspicion will fall on Boko Haram, which has carried out numerous bombings and Mumbai-style gun attacks during the five-year insurgency it has fought in its bid to turn an Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria. The group, whose name roughly translates as "Western education is sinful", has focused many of its attacks on schools.
In February, gunmen killed at least 40 students after throwing explosives into the dormitory of a government boarding school in Buni Yadi, also in Yobe state. And in July last year, 42 students were killed when Boko Haram attacked dormitories in a gun and bomb attack on a government boarding school in the village of Mamudo, near Potiskum.
Boko Haram's most high-profile attack on a school came in April, when fighters kidnapped 276 girls from the town of Chibok in Borno state, also in northeast Nigeria.
More than six months later, 219 of the girls are still being held. Claims last month that the girls were to be released as part of a ceasefire deal were rubbished on Sunday in a new video broadcast by Boko Haram's leader, Abubakar Shekau.
A medic at the Potiskum General Hospital, where the victims were taken, said scores of students had been admitted. "We are still receiving casualties from the school which is a stone's throw from here," the medic said.
"Our priority now is to save the injured, so we have not started a headcount of the victims."
A local resident, Adamu Alkassim, said there was confusion in and around the school. The scene was a mass of abandoned footwear and blood.
Yobe is one of three northeastern states that has been under a state of emergency since May last year to try to quell the bloody insurgency.
But violence has continued unabated and Boko Haram has seized at least two dozen towns and villages in recent months, raising doubts about the government's ability to control the region.
Responding to the news, IMAN Chairman, Ribal Al-Assad said:
"I am appalled to hear of these recent attacks in Nigeria, it has been especially concerning to see such a prolific escalation of attacks committed by Islamic extremists in the country over this past year.
It is clear that Nigeria needs far more support in its fight against terrorism.
It is also clear that members of Boko Haram have absolutely no respect for the sanctity of life, they will murder anyone who does not agree with their narrow perverted ideology and much more needs to be done to combat this threat.
Boko Haram have a cowardly habit of attacking civilians, especially children - their ideology is extremely disturbing and I fear we have yet to see the last of these attacks; until robust action is taken they will continue murdering and torturing innocent people.
This has to stop and the international community must help Nigeria to combat this threat and bring those responsible for these attacks to justice.
My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families at this time"
