Nigeria: jihadists suspected in attack on police headquarters in nation's capital

DutchClogCyborg · Jun 17, 2011

Escalation: Boko Haram has ventured again out of the region it usually terrorizes to attack a target of supreme symbolic value, the headquarters for law enforcement, in the capital city for Nigeria's non-Sharia government. "Abuja 'bomber' hits Nigeria police headquarters," from BBC News, June 16

An eyewitness to the blast told the BBC everybody was scared after the bomb exploded.
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Bombs will do that. That was the subheading between the headline and the main article, which follows below.

Two people, including a bomber, have died in an explosion at Nigeria's police headquarters in the capital, Abuja, the police say.

Police spokesman Olusola Amore said Islamist group Boko Haram was suspected of being behind the attack.

The blast in the car park of the police base destroyed many vehicles and a large plume of smoke could be seen rising from the scene.

A Red Cross spokesman told the BBC that another four bodies had been recovered.

"Six to be precise. Six bodies from the explosion," Nigerian Red Cross official Taiye Olaniyi told the BBC's Focus on Africa programme, adding that many of them had been "very badly mutilated"

Seven other people were wounded in the explosion, five of whom were being treated in hospital, the Red Cross said.

The BBC's Jonah Fisher in Lagos says that, for the Nigerian authorities, the attack is an embarrassing strike at the very heart of their security establishment.

In the last few weeks, Boko Haram, which usually operates in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri, has been stepping up its attacks on security targets.
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Boko Haram's attacks have focused on un-Islamic practices -- drinking, charging interest, belonging to non-Islamic religions -- or symbols and representatives of Nigeria's government and law enforcement.

The group said it was behind a series of bombings in the capital that took place hours after President Goodluck Jonathan's inauguration last month.

On Tuesday, Nigeria's police chief promised to decisively deal with the group by sending more troops and equipment to the north, declaring they would be finished within a few months....
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And Boko Haram promised to wage an intensified jihad against the infidels who had the unmitigated gall to fight back.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13793266

waltky · Aug 26, 2011

Terrorist group Boko Haram bombs the UN...

UN Chief: Nigerian Bombing Will Not Deter UN's Work
August 26, 2011 | United Nations UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has strongly condemned a car bomb attack on a United Nation's office in the Nigerian capital.

Friday's attack is one of the most deadly in the world body's history, with at least 18 dead and many more wounded. Ban said at 11 in the morning local time, a car bomber attacked the Abuja compound, which houses 26 humanitarian and development agencies and hundreds of staff. "We do not yet have precise casualty figures but they are likely to be considerable," said Ban. "A number of people are dead; many more are wounded." Ban said he is dispatching his deputy, Asha Rose Migiro, who was in Addis Ababa for an African Union meeting, to the Nigerian capital immediately to assess the situation. She will be accompanied by the U.N.'s security chief Gregory Starr. There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but suspicion fell on Boko Haram, an Islamist group with links to al-Qaida that has claimed other bombings in Nigeria.

A few hours after the blast, a Boko Haram spokesman telephoned a correspondent for VOA's Hausa service and said the group carried out the attack and warned that "this is just the beginning." The spokesman said the bombing was in response to the government's sending more troops to Nigeria's northeastern Borno state. The soldiers were sent there to stabilize the security situation after an increase in suspected Boko Haram assassinations and bombings. Meanwhile, a U.N. spokesman in New York, Farhan Haq, told reporters that there had been no previous threat on the U.N. Abuja compound and that it was a well-protected facility, including by a series of barriers and gates. "The car got through a couple of gates that were defended by security guards," said Haq.

"How that happened, how they got past security, we will have to determine how that was the case. But we will try to investigate how our defenses were breached." Haq said the U.N. has been increasing its security at facilities worldwide to fortify buildings against the evolving and varied threats they face. At U.N. headquarters, there was a visibly increased presence of armed security and city police outside the building following Friday's events. In the U.N. Security Council a moment of silence was observed. The Secretary-General then told the council that the Abuja attack would not deter the United Nations from its vital work, but he warned that threats to the institution are growing.

"This outrageous and shocking attack is evidence that the U.N premises are increasingly being viewed as soft targets by extremist elements around the world," added Ban. The U.N. suffered its deadliest attack on August 19th , 2003 when a suicide bomber struck its headquarters in Baghdad. A total of 22 people were killed, including the chief of the mission. In December 2007, the U.N. compound in the Algerian capital, Algiers, was also hit. Seventeen staff were killed and 40 others injured. The head of U.N. security resigned over charges of security lapses that may have prevented the attack.

Source
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DutchClogCyborg · Aug 28, 2011

Nigeria, a nation feeling the love and peace that islam brings to any nation.

waltky · May 22, 2014

Boko Haram suspected in double blasts that kill 118 in Jos, Nigeria...

Nigeria car bombs kill at least 118
Thu, May 22, 2014 - DOUBLE STRIKE: Police said explosives in a car and minibus were detonated 20 minutes apart in a busy market area, and that most of the deceased are women

Twin car bombings in central Nigeria killed at least 118 people and brought entire buildings down on Tuesday, in the latest affront to the governments internationally backed security crackdown. Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan swiftly condemned the attack in the central city of Jos, calling it a tragic assault on human freedom and condemning the perpetrators as cruel and evil. President Jonathan assures all Nigerians that [the] government remains fully committed to winning the war against terror and... will not be cowed by the atrocities of enemies of human progress and civilization, his office said. However, the deadly strike and a suicide car bomb attack that killed four in the northern city of Kano on Sunday will raise fresh questions about the governments grip on the countrys security.

Jonathan has already faced calls to quit for failing to ensure the safety of Nigerians and their property, as well as come under criticism for his lackluster response to the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by Boko Haram militants. An international team, including specialists from the US, Britain, France and Israel, are involved in the hunt for the 223 teenagers, who were abducted in the remote town of Chibok on April 14. In Jos, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) coordinator Mohammed Abdulsalam said buildings collapsed because of the intensity of the blasts in the New Abuja Market area, causing raging fires. More bodies may be in the debris, he said. The exact figure of the dead bodies recovered as at now is 118... 56 people were injured. The military said improvised explosive devices were hidden in a truck and a minibus. The second went off about 20 minutes after the first, as emergency service workers tended to the victims.

Crowds gather at the scene of an explosion at Terminus Market in Jos, Nigeria

Most of the victims were women, added Pam Ayuba, spokesperson for Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang. Plateau, of which Jos is the capital, falls in Nigerias so-called Middle Belt, where the mainly Christian south meets the Muslim-majority north. The state and its religiously divided capital have seen deadly sectarian clashes in the past, as well as attacks from Boko Haram extremists, who have been waging an increasingly deadly insurgency in the north since 2009. There was no immediate indication of who was responsible for the latest attacks, although the police in Kano said they had arrested two men in connection with Sundays bombing, without giving details.

Nigeria has concentrated on a mainly military response to Boko Haram in the northeast and on Tuesday, parliament approved a further six-month extension to a state of emergency in the states of Borno, Yobe and Adamawa. Jonathan had requested a continuation of the special powers because of what he said was the daunting security situation and mounting civilian casualties. More than 2,000 people, most of them civilians, have been killed this year alone as a result of the violence and the militarys response, according to NEMA, human rights and monitoring groups.

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2014/05/22/2003590969
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Nigeria bombs: 'The first thing I saw was a woman with no head and no legs'
Wednesday 21 May 2014 ~ Boko Haram suspected of attack in ethnically mixed northern city of Jos, as anger grows over lacklustre government response

Gabriel Uche never heard the sound of the explosion. All he knew was his brick, zinc-roofed electronics shop was suddenly pitch dark and silent. Then came a burst of searing pain and a high-pitched wailing from his nine-months-pregnant wife. Uche's car was less than 10 metres from a car packed with explosives which detonated in a teeming business district in the central Nigerian city of Jos on Tuesday afternoon. Miraculously, he survived the twin explosions, believed to be the work of Islamist insurgents Boko Haram, that left at least 123 dead. "I came out and the first thing I saw was a woman with no head and no legs," he said, standing amid the twisted remnants of laptops and televisions, twisted into spidery globules of black metal. Gusts of wind carried the scent of ash and the acrid smell of burning flesh.

Next door, his neighbour Sunday's shop was an equally smouldering wreck. He was burnt alive along with three customers as flames from the car set his carpet shop ablaze. Abdulsalam Mohammed, of Nigeria's national emergency management agency, told the Guardian the death toll could rise as emergency workers cleared the rubble. In the shadow of a teaching hospital whose windows had been blasted out, diggers began moving sheets of metal, rubble and singed clothes from the streets. "We've spent most of this morning picking up body parts arms, legs, they were scattered over the rooftops," said one worker, staring blankly into the distance as he spoke. Nearby, the men had amassed a pile of ash-grey debris, from which a single pink high heel protruded.

No group has claimed responsibility, but the blast is probably the work of Boko Haram, which has recently escalated its five-year insurgency to carve a caliphate in northern Nigeria, and kidnapped more than 300 schoolgirls from a remote north-eastern school in April. In the past month, the group has set off two bombs in the capital, Abuja, and another in the country's second city, Kano. The second blast timed to go off as people rescued the victims from the first one mimics the tactics used in earlier blasts by the group. Witnesses said a group of youths crowded around a car they noticed was parked on the narrow, shop-lined street and warned panicked people fleeing the scene to stay away from there.

Late on Tuesday, Boko Haram gunmen also stormed through two settlements near Chibok, the village where the schoolgirls were kidnapped last month. Locals said at least 48 were killed in Alagarno and Shawa as the militants fired on fleeing civilians and razed parts of the village. Haruna Bitrus, a resident, said the attack had not provoked any response from an apparently beefed-up military presence in the area, part of three regions where a year-long state of emergency was extended this month. Nigeria's military has been stretched by attempts to police a vast, arid area in which fleet-footed insurgents have been able to make lightning raids. "While the gunmen were fleeing, three of their vehicles broke down and they have stayed behind to fix them. They were there up to this morning," with no response from the military, Bitrus told AFP.

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waltky · May 28, 2014

Boko Haram wants to exchange girls for members captured by Nigeria...

IMPASSE IN RESCUE OF NIGERIAN GIRLS
May 27,`14 -- Nigeria's military chiefs and the president are apparently split over how to free nearly 300 schoolgirls abducted by Islamic extremists, with the military saying use of force endangers the hostages and the president reportedly ruling out a prisoner-hostage swap.

The defense chief, Air Marshal Alex Badeh, announced Monday night that the military has located the girls, but offered no details or a way forward. "We can't go and kill our girls in the name of trying to get them back," he said. Previous military attempts to free hostages have led to the prisoners being killed by their abductors, including the deaths of two engineers, a Briton and an Italian, in Sokoto in March 2012. A human rights activist close to mediators said a swap of detained extremists for the girls was negotiated a week ago but fell through because President Goodluck Jonathan refused to consider an exchange. The activist spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because the activist is not permitted to speak to press.

Britain's Minister for Africa, Mark Simmonds, said two weeks ago that the Nigerian leader had told him categorically he would not consider a prisoner swap. Community leader Pogu Bitrus of Chibok, the town from which the girls were abducted on April 15, says authorities are speaking with "discordant voices" and the president appears under pressure to negotiate. "The pressure is there if his own lieutenants are saying one (thing). Because if they cannot use force, the deduction is that there must be negotiation," Bitrus said. "And if their commander-in-chief, the president, is saying that he will not negotiate, then they are not on the same page."

Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno state, the birthplace of the Boko Haram extremists and the northeastern state from which the girls were abducted, said recently: "We impress on the federal authorities to work with our friends that have offered to assist us to ensure the safe recovery of the innocent girls." Nigeria's military and government have faced national and international outrage over their failure to rescue the girls seized by Boko Haram militants from a remote northeastern school six weeks ago. Jonathan finally accepted international help. American planes have been searching for the girls and Britain, France, Israel and other countries have sent experts in surveillance and hostage negotiation.

A Boko Haram video shows some of the kidnapped girls reciting Quranic verses in Arabic and two of them explaining why they had converted from Christianity to Islam in captivity. Unverified reports indicate that two may have died of snake bites, that some have been forced to marry their abductors and that others may have been taken across borders into Chad and Cameroon. Suspected Boko Haram gunmen have killed 54 people in two separate attacks in northeastern Nigeria, local officials said Tuesday. In Borno state gunmen killed nine people in two remote villages on Monday night, said Nglamuda Ibrahim a local government official. The armed men shot at villagers, burned their homes and hoisted white flags with Arabic letters, the official said.

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waltky · May 11, 2016

Nigerian barracks 'a place of death'...

Nigeria Giwa barracks 'a place of death' says Amnesty
Tue, 10 May 2016 - Amnesty International says at least 149 detainees have died "in appalling conditions" at a barracks detention centre in north-east Nigeria this year.

In a report, Amnesty says 11 of those who died at the Giwa barracks were young children, including four babies. It called the centre "a place of death" and said it should be closed. The BBC's Abdullahi Kaura Abubakar in Abuja says it is latest in a series of damning reports on the Nigerian military's treatment of suspects. The army has not commented on the latest report but has previously said it has set up a human rights department to check claims of abuse. The Giwa barracks detention centre in Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, is in an area where the authorities are fighting the Boko Haram militant group.

Nigerian Army prepares to leave Maiduguri in heavily armed convoy on road to Damboa in Borno State

In its report, Amnesty says evidence gathered through interviews with former detainees and eyewitnesses, and supported by video and photographs, shows that many detainees may have died from disease, hunger, dehydration, and gunshot wounds. "The discovery that babies and young children have died in appalling conditions in military detention is both harrowing and horrifying," said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty's research and advocacy director for Africa. "We have repeatedly sounded the alarm over the high death rate of detainees in Giwa barracks but these findings show that, for both adults and children, it remains a place of death."

'Mass arrests'

The report calls for the barracks to be closed immediately and all detainees released or transferred to civilian authorities. Amnesty says it believes that about 1,200 people are being held at Giwa, many of them arbitrarily rounded up during mass arrests. "Once inside the barracks, they are incarcerated without access to the outside world or trial. At least 120 of those detained are children," it says. Amnesty has previously accused the military of executing more than 640 detainees following a Boko Haram attack on the detention centre in March 2014. It has also said that, since 2011, more than 8,000 young men and boys have been either shot, starved, suffocated or tortured to death in Nigerian military custody and that no-one has been held responsible.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-36259126
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Amnesty: Babies dying in Nigerian military detention
May 10,`16 -- Babies and children are among scores of people dying in military detention at a notorious Nigerian barracks where soldiers illegally hold suspected Islamic extremists, Amnesty International reported Wednesday.

Many detainees at the Giwa barracks may have died from disease, hunger, dehydration and gunshot wounds, the London-based human rights organization said, quoting witnesses, including former detainees, supported by video and photographic evidence. The barracks is in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, the birthplace of Nigeria's home-grown Boko Haram Islamic extremists. The city is now the headquarters for the Nigerian military's campaign against Boko Haram. "The discovery that babies and young children have died in appalling conditions in military detention is both harrowing and horrifying," and comes despite repeated alarms over the high death rate of detainees in Giwa, said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty's advocacy director for Africa.

Amnesty has previously said that President Muhammadu Buhari has not kept promises he made days after his inauguration in May 2015 to investigate the alleged abuses at Giwa. Military spokesman Brig Gen. Rabe Abubakar called Amnesty's report "a distraction." "Our duty is to protect lives and that is what we have been doing," he told The Associated Press. The Associated Pres reported in 2013 that some 3,000 detainees had died at Giwa in two months, according to mortuary records. Today, detainee bodies are being buried in unmarked mass graves, Amnesty reported. It called for Nigeria's government to shut the facility.

Woman and children detained by Nigeria army who have no links to Boko Haram sit under a canopy before their release at the Giwa military barracks in Maiduguri, Nigeria. Babies and children are among scores of people dying in military detention at a notorious Nigerian barracks where soldiers illegally hold suspected Islamic extremists, Amnesty International charged

The report said 149 people, including 11 children under the age of 6, have died at Giwa this year. Among them were four babies who apparently died of untreated measles. Detaining children, with or without their parents, is common in Nigeria. The number of people detained is unknown. Amnesty has reported that troops had arbitrarily arrested 20,000 people between 2013 and 2014. A U.S. State Department report last month said Nigerian "security services perpetrated extrajudicial killings, and engaged in torture, rape, arbitrary detention ..." in 2015. Such reports hamper aid to fight Boko Haram. The United States blocked sales of helicopter gunships to Nigeria in 2014 partly because of human rights concerns.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2016-05-10-19-44-47
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waltky · Dec 29, 2016

Some kidnapped Chibok schoolgirls may have been used as human shields...

Nigerian Army: Boko Haram May Have Used Chibok Girls as Shields During Attack
Thursday 29th December, 2016 - Boko Haram militants kidnapped more than 200 girls from their school dormitories in the town of Chibok in April 2014.

The first of the girls to be found said most of them were being held in the Sambisa forest, where she was discovered in May. The group has kidnapped hundreds of men, women and children during its seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, some of whom may also be held in the forest. The abduction of the Chibok girls, 21 of whom were released in October, brought worldwide notoriety.

Stronghold reportedly captured

President Muhammadu Buhari said Saturday that the Islamist militants' last enclave in the forest, the vast former game reserve in northeast Nigeria that was their stronghold, had been captured. Reuters has been unable to independently verify that the area has been captured, but the comments from the general were the first reference by a military official to the suspected whereabouts of the girls since Buhari's announcement. The president said the capture of Camp Zero in the forest marked the 'final crushing of Boko Haram,' but security analysts say the group's ability to carry out attacks in neighboring Niger, Cameroon and Chad suggests it has multiple bases.

They also say the group split this year with one faction led by Abubakar Shekau operating from the Sambisa forest and the other, allied to Islamic State and led by Abu Musab al-Barnawi, based in the Lake Chad region. Irabor said the military was pursuing those who fled, adding that 1,240 people suspected of being militants, their relatives or sympathizers had been arrested between Dec. 21 and 28.

Boko Haram has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than 2 million during its insurgency. It controlled an area the size of Belgium in early 2015, but has been pushed back by troops from Nigeria and neighboring countries since then. Separately, dozens of Boko Haram fighters have given themselves up to authorities in southern Niger, the interior minister there said.

http://www.bignewsnetwork.com/news/...ve-used-chibok-girls-as-shields-during-attack
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Nigeria: jihadists suspected in attack on police headquarters in nation's capital

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