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Reporting from Kano, Nigeria, and Johannesburg, A militant Islamic group whose almost daily attacks have put Nigerians on edge left the country stunned Saturday after a well-coordinated strike with disturbing echoes of Al Qaeda's brand of mayhem.
More than 150 people were killed in the Friday evening carnage in the northern city of Kano. The group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks, whose targets included the secret service headquarters, an immigration office and a passport office.
It was the group's most deadly strike, far exceeding previous death tolls.
Boko Haram, which wants to impose sharia, or Islamic law, on Nigeria's 160 million people, killed more than 500 people in almost daily attacks last year. Before Friday's violence, it had killed more than 70 people this month.
U.S. officials have expressed fear that the group, whose name means "Western education is sacrilege," may be getting support and training from Al Qaeda affiliates on the continent, given the increasing sophistication of its attacks and growing use of suicide bombers.
Nigeria is divided between the mainly Muslim north and the oil-rich, mainly Christian south. It has been plagued by terrorist attacks in the north as well as by sectarian killings, particularly in central Nigeria, and violent insurgencies, oil theft and piracy in the southern Niger Delta.
President Goodluck Jonathan's response to Friday's attacks fueled criticism, with many accusing him of failing to act decisively to prevent such violence.
In a statement Saturday, the president condemned the attacks and promised to find and prosecute the insurgents.
"These are honest and patriotic Nigerians who were brutally and recklessly cut down by agents of terror. As a responsible government, we will not fold our hands and watch enemies of democracy, for that is what these mindless killers are, perpetrate unprecedented evil in our land," the statement said. "I want to reassure Nigerians that all those involved in that dastardly act will be made to face the full wrath of the law."
Kano, Nigeria's second-largest city, is honeycombed with narrow alleys with open gutters. The unemployment rate is high, particularly among youths, and the northern region has long felt alienated and marginalized by southern politicians.
Witnesses described scenes of mayhem Friday night as battles raged in various parts of the city.
An immigration official, who declined to be named, said he was wounded when Boko Haram gunmen attacked, killing two of his colleagues. He survived by pretending to be dead.
"They shot me on the right shin, shattering my bone and another bullet pierced my shoulder," he said. "I remained motionless and they left me for dead."
In hospital morgues, bodies were piled up, and throngs of relatives of those missing waited fearfully.
"We now have 162 bodies deposited here by relief workers," an attendant said an attendant in a morgue, where corpses were piled on the blood-splattered floor nearby. "The figure is bound to increase, as the rescue teams keep recovering bodies from different parts of the city."
The attacks increase pressure on the president for a resolution of the crisis. Jonathan, a southern Christian whose election last year triggered violent protests in the north, had declared a state of emergency in four northern states.
The president faced a barrage of criticism on social networks of his handling of the crisis, a week after he faced furious mass protests over his attempt to ditch a fuel subsidy that sets prices below the market rate.
"Dear Nigerians, I am more than convinced that President Goodluck is not only clueless but the entire Cabinet is," one message on Twitter said.
Human rights lawyer Shehu Sani said in a phone interview that Nigerians were fed up with Jonathan's failure to prevent the bombings and shootings.
Sounds like the folks the US has been training, just like the US trained Al Qaeda years ago. These US-trained elements often become tools to be used to instigate violence and thus justify US "intervention" in nations with resources that the US covets.
This is total bullshit you posted, you should be ashamed of yourself. Eat a neg for lying.
L'Afrique only speaks the truth. Research findings will show you that like Al-Qaeda, the US and its Western allies often recruit the impoverished in developing nations, trained them as assassins and then use them to destabilize nations, thus giving them bogus reason to continue their "fight against 'terrorism'."
100% true.L'Afrique only speaks the truth. Research findings will show you that like Al-Qaeda, the US and its Western allies often recruit the impoverished in developing nations, trained them as assassins and then use them to destabilize nations, thus giving them bogus reason to continue their "fight against 'terrorism'."
100% true.L'Afrique only speaks the truth. Research findings will show you that like Al-Qaeda, the US and its Western allies often recruit the impoverished in developing nations, trained them as assassins and then use them to destabilize nations, thus giving them bogus reason to continue their "fight against 'terrorism'."
And the so called war against terrorism will continue indefinitely.
So that the military/industrial complex will keep making money for generations.
KANO, Nigeria -- Gunmen attacked worship services at a university campus and a church Sunday in northern Nigeria, killing at least 21 people in coordinated assaults that saw panicked Christians gunned down as they tried to flee, witnesses and officials said.
The deadlier attack targeted an old section of Bayero University's campus in the city of Kano where churches hold Sunday services, with gunmen killing at least 16 people and wounding at least 22 others, according to the Nigerian Red Cross.
A later attack in the northeast city of Maiduguri saw gunmen open fire at a Church of Christ in Nigeria chapel, killing five people, including a pastor preparing for Communion, witnesses said.
No group immediately claimed responsibility, but the attacks bore similarities to others carried by a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram.
The Bayero University attack occurred around an old theater and lecture halls where local churches hold services, Kano state police commissioner Ibrahim Idris said. The gunmen rode into the campus on motorcycles, then threw small explosives made out of soda cans around the area, Idris said.
The worshippers ran out in an attempt to escape, only to be shot by the waiting gunmen, the commissioner said.
"By the time we responded, they entered (their) motorcycles and disappeared into the neighborhood," the commissioner said.
