Nigeria blast kills dozens
Boko Haram suspected as mosque targeted
AT least 50 people were killed yesterday when a suicide bomber blew himself up in a mosque in northeast Nigeria, in an attack blamed on Boko Haram jihadists.
The blast happened during early morning prayers at the Madina mosque in the Unguwar Shuwa area of Mubi, about 200km from the Adamawa state capital Yola.
It was the biggest attack in Adamawa since December, when two women suicide bombers killed 45 people at a crowded market in Madagali.
Security analysts said yesterday’s bombing again underlined the threat posed by Boko Haram, despite an overall decline in deaths from attacks by the group last year.
Adamawa state police spokesman Othman Abubakar said at least 50 were killed in the Mubi attack.
“It was a suicide bomber who mingled with worshippers.
“He entered the mosque along with other worshippers for the morning prayers.
“It was when the prayers were on that he set off his explosives.”
Asked who was responsible, Abubakar said: “We all know the trend. We don’t suspect anyone specifically but we know those behind these types of attacks.”
The attack bore all the hallmarks of Boko Haram, the Islamist militants whose insurgency has left at least 20 000 people dead and more than 2.6 million others homeless since 2009.
Adamawa state emergency management agency head Haruna Furo and Mubi north local government area chairman Musa Hamad Bello both confirmed the attack.
They gave lower death tolls but both said the number killed was likely to rise.
Another emergency services official described the blast as devastating and said there were high casualties.
Abubakar Sule, who lives near the mosque, said he was present during the rescue operation and that 40 people had died on the spot while several others were taken to hospital with severe and life- threatening injuries.
“The roof was blown off. People near the mosque said the prayer was midway when the bomber, who was obviously in the congregation, detonated his explosives.
“This is obviously the work of Boko Haram.”
Yan St-Pierre, a counter-terrorism specialist at the Modern Security Consulting Group in Berlin, said the bombing fitted a pattern of previous attacks.
“It fits with the increasing lethality and potency of suicide attacks of the organisation’s current hot streak, which started approximately four weeks ago,” he said.
The latest Global Terrorism Index, published last week, said deaths attributed to Boko Haram last year fell by 80%.
But St-Pierre said Boko Haram remained an extremely potent and dangerous organisation which was far from being on the back foot, as the military has claimed.
Boko Haram briefly overran Mubi in late 2014 as its fighters rampaged across northeastern Nigeria, seizing towns and villages in its quest to establish a hardline Islamic state.
The town’s name was changed temporarily to Madinatul Islam, or “City of Islam” in Arabic, during the Boko Haram occupation.
But it has been peaceful since the military and civilian militia ousted them from the town. – AFP