Yesterday a pair of suicide bombers killed 22 Nigerians and wounded an estimated 65 more in an attack at a bus station in Kano, according to reports from the African country. The suicide bombers attacked “Kano’s Sabon Gari district, an area mostly inhabited by migrants from the southern Christian Igbo ethnic group,” according to Bloomberg. The blasts were large enough to destroy five buses.
While no group has claimed credit for the attack, it was likely carried out by Boko Haram or Ansar al-Muslimeen in the Land of Black Africans (which is also known as Ansaru), a splinter faction that recently executed seven foreign hostages. Both groups are known to have ties to al Qaeda, and support jihadist operations in neighboring Mali. Documents seized at Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan showed that top-level Boko Haram leaders have been in touch with al Qaeda, according to The Guardian. Boko Haram is known to receive support from al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and from Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate in East Africa.
The suicide attack in Kano is the first recorded in Nigeria so far this year. Last year, Boko Haram conducted 20 suicide attacks in Nigeria, according to a tally by The Long War Journal. The last attack took place on Dec. 22, 2012, when suicide bombers targeted mobile telecommunications firms in the country.
Christians have been a primary target for Boko Haram suicide attacks. In early 2012, Boko Haram stated that it seeks “to eradicate Christians” from areas in Nigeria. The group has repeatedly targeted Christians at churches, especially on religious holidays, in order to kill as many Christians as possible.
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5 Comments
with each passing week or so
the Islamic Internationale presence throughout the Sahara & its border lands, Middle East, Mediterranean Africa & the Lands abutting the Red Sea is at the very least one person stronger if not more.
There were much more than 22 deaths.
A conservative estimate is 60, the actual numbers could be as high as 100.
(I come from Nigeria).
CAN SOMEBODY DO THE SAME EYE FOR A EYE
In Africa, most things assume an ethnic dimension.
Igbos won’t give a toss about AQIM or linkages between Boko Haram & AQIM or Salafists – they just know this is a Hausa thing. So if they are sufficiently provoked, they will go after the Hausas.
That is how the last Civil War started.
Marc,
Nigeria is already battling with militancy in the Niger Delta. An “eye for an eye” will lead to this sort of violence spreading to the rest of the nation.
And a Sierra Leone style implosion of Nigeria.
Nigeria is MUCH bigger than Sierra Leone.