Boko Haram Claims Responsibility For Abuja Bombings
Boko Haram have claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings in Abuja that
killed 18 people and left dozens wounded last week.
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The terrorist group released a statement on Twitter on Sunday along with three
photos of suicide attackers involved in Friday’s deadly blasts. The first two
attacks happened in Kuje township, where a suicide bomber attacked a police
station while another bomb was detonated at a nearby market. The third device
exploded in Nyanya at a bus stop.
Latest death toll stands at 18, while 41 people were seriously injured,
according to Abuja Zonal Coordinator of the National Emergency Management
Agency.
The blasts in the Federal Capital Territory happened in an area where more
than 3,000 persons displaced by Boko Haram are currently living. Police
sources told local papers on Sunday that the most likely option was that the
attacks had been conducted by fighters hiding among the displaced persons
living around the capital.
“The bombings could not have been carried out by terrorists from outside
Abuja, but by insurgents who have been hiding in the FCT, particularly among
the IDPs,”
a source told Nigeria's Punch publication.
“The police are focusing on the displaced persons because they believe some
of them could be Boko Haram sympathizers, who are working for the sect.”
President Muhammadu Buhari who visited the victims on Sunday said that he will
continue to fight terrorism. Meanwhile, Nigeria’s armed forces on Sunday once
again vowed to eradicate terrorism in the country by December.
“Our will cannot be broken; evil will never triumph over good,” Buhari
wrote on twitter. “We will be rid of this evil stalking our land.”
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the bomb attacks in a
statement saying that the
“continuing violence by Boko Haram is an affront to international law, to
humanity and to religious faith.”
At least 17,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million made
homeless since the Boko Haram insurgency began in 2009. In March this year,
Boko Haram pledged its loyalty to Islamic State militants and their caliphate
stretched across Iraq and Syria. The Nigerian extremist group seeks to
establish an Islamic state on the African continent and has intensified its
incursions into neighboring Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
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