Nigeria police station bomb kills many
Maidaguri - A bomb blast at the entrance of the
police headquarters of northeast Nigeria's Borno state killed many
people on Friday, mostly police, witnesses and security officials said.
A police officer at the scene, who could not be named, said five police vans had been loaded with the dead.
“Many people, mostly members of
the police, which include men and women, were killed in the explosion,”
said witness Ali Alhaji in the city of Maiduguri, the focal point of an
insurgency by Islamist sect Boko Haram.
Boko Haram, which wants to create
an Islamic state in parts of Nigeria, has been blamed for hundreds of
bomb and gun attacks on security forces and civilians over the past two
years.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the bomb.
Police spokesman for Borno state
Gideon Jibrin confirmed there had been bomb blast and that there were
casualties, but he did not have further details or a precise toll.
Police
stations are a favourite target for the insurgency, which flared up
partly in response to police brutality against its members, including
its founder Mohammed Yusuf, killed in police custody during a crackdown
in 2009.
From being a reclusive clerical
movement opposed to Western education last decade, Boko Haram has
radicalised and mushroomed to become the main security threat facing
Africa's top energy producer, and has linked up with other Islamist
groups in the region such as al Qaeda's north African wing.
It is based far from oil producing
facilities in the south, although its fighters have successfully
targeted the capital Abuja in the middle of the country a handful of
times.
Nigerian forces shot dead 16
suspected militants in a fire fight with Islamist sect Boko Haram on
Tuesday, the military said, the sort of move which sometimes provokes a
retaliation from the Islamists.
Earlier on Friday, a roadside bomb killed one person in downtown Maiduguri, police said.Source: http://www.iol.co.za/news/africa/nigeria-police-station-bomb-kills-many-1.1315220#.T9JynZhadJc
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