Deadly bomb blasts hit Nigerian city

Authorities in Nigeria have said that three separate bomb explosions in the country’s northeast have killed at least 25 people and wounded many others.

The attack on Sunday targeted outdoor beer gardens in the city of Maiduguri.

Authorities have accused the Islamist group Boko Haram of being behind the attacks.

“Around 25 people have been killed in a multiple bomb blast in the Dala ward of Maiduguri,” a military official said.

The National Emergency Management Agency said it was working with other rescue teams to evacuate the injured but gave no further details.

Boko Haram group had claimed responsibility for a bomb blast 10 days ago outside the national police headquarters in the capital Abuja. It is also believed to be behind a number of other attacks that killed more than a dozen people this month. 

Reporting from Lagos, Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndege said, “A resident that we were able to get in touch with on the ground told Al Jazeera that they could hear the loud explosions and screams, cries of terror from people caught up in the chaos.”

Quashing Boko Haram has now become a major priority for the government as it has replaced attacks on oil infrastructure the southern Niger Delta as the main security threat in Africa’s most populous nation.
 
“There have been a series of meetings over the last week between Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, and key security chiefs in Nigeria to figure out a strategy how exactly to get rid of Boko Haram,” our correspondent said.

Maiduguri in Borno state is about 870km from Abuja and is considered a Boko Haram stronghold.

The group has been responsible for almost daily killings and attacks on police and government buildings in recent months in and around Maiduguri, which lies near Nigeria’s borders with Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

Boko Haram has pushed for the implementation of sharia, or Islamic law, in Borno. It has vowed to keep killing people believed to support the establishment until sharia is adopted alongside other demands.

‘Warning’

In a leaflet attributed to Boko Haram and distributed to journalists in Maiduguri recently, a man claiming to be a spokesman warned that the group would launch more attacks after being angered by comments from the national police chief.

Inspector-general of police Hafiz Ringim had said during a visit to the city that “the days of Boko Haram are numbered”.

The alleged Boko Haram leaflet went on to warn residents of all northern states, including the district where Abuja is located, to stay indoors to avoid getting caught in the violence.

Nigeria, a nation of 150 million people, is divided between the Christian-dominated south and the Muslim-majority north. A dozen states across Nigeria’s north already have sharia in place, though the area remains
under the control of secular state governments.

Boko Haram was thought to have been vanquished in 2009 after an uprising in which hundreds were killed. The military destroyed its main mosque and its leader, Mohammed Yusuf, died in police custody.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who was sworn in for his first full term in office a month ago, has voiced support for dialogue with Boko Haram.

But the group has an ill-defined command structure, a variety of people claiming to speak on its behalf, and an unknown number of followers. Some security analysts say its supporters number in the thousands.