12 killed in Nigeria bus suicide bombing
TWELVE people were killed and 20 injured in a suicide bomb attack in the north-easter n Niger ian town of Potiskum.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast but it bore the hallmark of similar attacks by Nigeria’s home-grown Boko Haram Islamic extremist group.
In a separate attack in Kano, the region’s main city, two male suicide bombers parked a vehicle at the Kano Line bus station, before detonating themselves.
In Potiskum, bus driver Adamu Isa said the male bomber forced himself onto the bus and blew himself up.
The bus was destroyed and ot her veh icle s at t he Dan-Borno bus station were also damaged in the explosion.
In the same town on Sunday a girl who looked about 10 carried explosives that detonated, killing herself and four others at a busy market.
Thousands of people have been killed in the five-year-old uprising to enforce strict Islamic law in Nigeria.
Boko Haram now controls vast swathes of north-east Nigeria and has displaced more than three million people.
The mounting threat of the Islamist insurgency has already led to the postponement of February’s presidential elections, with the vote now due to take place on March 28.
The delay is designed to give the Nigerian military time to re-establish its presence in the north-east where it is battling the Islamists.
However, opponents of President Goodluck Jonathan have claimed the delay is actually a political tactic.
Boko Haram is under increased pressure from the Nigerian troops as well as those of Chad, Niger, and Cameroon.