Female suicide bomber kills 20 in Nigeria city of Maiduguri
KANO, Nigeria: At least 20 people were killed Monday when a young female suicide bomber detonated her explosives at a bus station in Maiduguri, northeast Nigeria, in an attack likely to be blamed on Boko Haram.
The blast happened near a fish market in the Baga Road area of the city, which has been repeatedly targeted in recent weeks by shelling, bombs and suicide attacks.
“We heard a loud explosion at about 3.50 pm (1450 GMT) while we were preparing for afternoon prayers,” said Danlami Ajaokuta, a civilian vigilante assisting the military against Boko Haram.
“It happened right inside the motor park (bus station) attached to the fish market where labourers were sorting out rice.”
He said that according to survivors’ accounts, a woman came into the bus station with a casserole dish, shouting out for customers.
“Suddenly, the casserole, which obviously contained explosives, went off. She was blown to pieces... We have sorted out 20 dead bodies and 50 others that were injured.”
Ajaokuta’s account was supported by a labourer working at the scene who survived the blast, which sent people running in all directions in fear and panic.
“The rescue operation is still on, so the death toll may be higher at the end,” said the labourer, who asked not to be identified.
The police however gave a lower toll of 10 killed, as well as the two female suicide bombers.
“Twelve people died including the bombers and many others injured,” state police commissioner Aderemi Opadokun told reporters.
Reports from Maiduguri indicated that the first bomber was a girl aged about 17 but there was no immediate confirmation of her age.
There were also indications of a second bombing by a girl about the same age outside the bus station but no one was hurt.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but Boko Haram extremists have frequently targeted civilians at markets and bus stations during their six-year insurgency.
The Islamist bombers have also used young women and girls as human bombs since the middle of last year, as part of a campaign of terror in the restive northeast and beyond.
Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, has increasingly come under attack in the weeks since new President Muhammadu Buhari took office on May 29, vowing to wipe out the Islamists.
Monday’s bombing takes the number of attacks in the city to five this month. Three have been by suicide bombers and one targeted a cattle market.
On June 3, an improvised explosive device left outside a mechanics’ workshop on the Baga Road killed 18 while on May 30, 26 people were killed in a suicide attack at a city mosque. — AFP
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New York residents James Brady, 33, Marko Markovich, 28, and Andrew Rossig, 34, were convicted on three counts and WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama will visit Charleston on Friday to deliver the eulogy at the funeral of the pastor of a historic black church who was slain in last week’s mass shooting, the White House said Monday.
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The children, aged 5 to 16, came from Mali, Guinea and Burkina Faso as well as northern Ivory said Energy Minister Pedro Joaquin Coldwell.
An 800-kilometre underwater pipeline costing 3.1 billion will connect Texas to the port of Tuxpan in the state of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico. It would become operational in 2018. — AFP
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The trio walked onto the building’s then construction site at 3:00 am on September 30, 2013, and climbed 104 flights to where Brady, who worked at the site, had hidden their gear. They then leaped off and parachuted down to the streets below. — AFP
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White House spokesman Josh Earnest said further details about Obama’s trip would be made available in the coming days. — AFP
Ivory Coast frees 48 child slaves
Coast and were liberated in an operation from June 1 to 6 in the country’s western cocoa belt of San Pedro, the international police organisation said.
Some of them had been working in the fields for up to a year in extreme conditions that were “seriously jeopardising their health.” — Reuters