Bomb Explosion in Nigeria

[jchima]

A devastating bomb explosion has occured at a bus station in northern Nigeria's Bauchi state late on Wednesday, killing at least five people and wounding 12, police said.

 

[jchima]

Source: Bomb Explosion at Bus Station Kills Five in Bauchi - eReporter

 

[waltky]

Nigerian oil insurgency switches tactics...

New Tactics, Same Goals as Nigeria Oil Insurgency Intensifies
June 02, 2016 — First, it was the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta. Now, it's the Niger Delta Avengers. The Avengers have taken credit for bombings that affected major pipelines in the delta, including the Nembe and Forcados pipelines.

The attacks have disrupted the supply of natural gas to Nigeria's power plants, leading to extended blackouts across the country. Dolapo Oni, head of energy research at Ecobank, said the attacks have also led to cuts in oil exports in three of Nigeria's oil grades. He says daily production may be down to less than 1 million barrels, from the normal 2.2 million per day. "We're talking about the most important grades in Nigeria,” he said.

Nigeria's amnesty program for ex-militants was begun in 2009 to stop the sabotage of oil facilities, like this attack on a pipeline in Andoni in December 2005. Now, a new insurgency has risen up in the area.​

MEND, as the previous militancy was called, faded away after the government instituted an amnesty program in 2009 that gave ex-militants monthly stipends and enrolled some in training programs. The identity of the Avengers is unknown, but Antony Goldman, director of Promedia Consulting, says the new group has learned a thing or two since the days of MEND. Members have taken to Twitter to announce attacks. They also have a blog where they list demands and have threatened Nigeria's military and oil majors like Shell and Chevron, both of whom they've attacked.

While MEND kidnapped — and occasionally killed — oil workers, the Avengers seem more interested in destroying petroleum infrastructure. "This isn't a group that is looking to engage, particularly with the armed forces,” Goldman said. “It's not a group that has found to kidnap and ransom in that way that maybe is the case with earlier incarnations of militants." Nor are they necessarily members of the previous insurgency, as they've feuded publicly with Government Ekpemupolo, known as Tompolo, a prominent former militant who is wanted by Nigeria's anti-graft agency.

Land has been polluted by oil in the Niger Delta, Nigeria​

Niger Delta activist Annkio Briggs says that while the tactics may have changed, the reasons for the insurgency are the same as when MEND took to arms. The group's demands include a redistribution of the ownership of oil blocks and a cleanup of spills in the delta. Residents of the region have struggled with widespread poverty and polluted lands for decades. "They're still talking about the same issues of the Niger Delta," Briggs said. In a statement Wednesday, the military said it would stop the "economic saboteurs" in the Niger Delta.

Less kidnapping, more sabotage in Nigeria's new oil war

 

[waltky]

Boko Haram using children as suicide-bombers...

2 girls ‘aged 7 or 8’ blow themselves up in Nigeria market, injuring at least 17
11 Dec, 2016 - A pair of girls, believed to be aged between 7 and 8, blew themselves up in a bustling northeastern Nigerian market in Maiduguri, killing themselves and injuring at least 17 others, according to a local official and a militia member.

The attack carried out by the two suicide bombers killed at least three people, according to state emergency agency NEMA spokesman, Sani Datti, who spoke to Reuters. The locals told the news agency that up to nine people died. A local militia member, Abdulkarim Jabo, told AFP he saw the girls seconds before the explosion. “They got out of a rickshaw and walked right in front of me without showing the slightest sign of emotion,” he said. “I tried to speak with one of them, in Hausa and in English, but she didn't answer. I thought they were looking for their mother.” One of the girls “headed toward the poultry sellers, and then detonated her explosives belt.” The suicide bombers were as young as “seven or eight,” Jabo said.

Smoke is seen after an suicide bomb explosion in Gombe, Nigeria​

The attack was not immediately claimed by IS-affiliated Boko Haram, notorious for its signature strategy of kidnapping girls, but bore all the hallmarks of the terrorists. Maiduguri, the capital and largest city of Borno State, is the epicenter of the Boko Haram insurgency. One of the deadliest terrorist groups in the world, they are responsible for 5,478 deaths in 2015, surpassed only by Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL), according to the new Global Terrorism Index. On Friday, two women carried out suicide bombings at a crowded market in Madagali, killing at least 30 people and injuring 67, AP reported. More than “1.3 million children have been uprooted by Boko Haram-related violence,” according to the UN children's agency (UNICEF).

A Finn Church Aid report, based on interviews with 119 former Boko Haram members, recently found that female members of the terrorist group are almost as likely as men to be deployed as fighters. “This large role of women in Boko Haram was one of the most surprising results we got,” Mahdi Abdile, director of research at Finn Church Aid and co-author of the study, said in the report. “For example, in [Al-Qaeda-linked] Al Shabab, women basically do not have an active role at all,” he added. Boko Haram has killed about 20,000 people and displaced more than 2.5 million in Nigeria in a seven-year insurgency, according to AP.

2 girls ‘aged 7 or 8’ blow themselves up in Nigeria market, injuring at least 17