The death toll from two blasts in
northeast Nigeria rose to 35 on Friday, raising the total number killed in
suspected Boko Haram attacks to 82 during President Muhammadu Buhari’s first
week in office.
Rescue officials in the Adamawa
state’s capital Yola said 31 people had been confirmed dead in the explosion
that ripped through a market on Thursday, with another 38 wounded.
The Yola blast followed a suspected
suicide bombing in Maiduguri, capital of neighbouring Borno state, that killed
at least four people when a truck carrying firewood rammed into a checkpoint
outside a military barracks.
Nigerian police and civilians
inspect the site of a suicide attack at a busy cattle market in the
northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri on June 2, 2015. At least 13 people
were killed in the attack, the Red Cross and civilian vigilantes battling Boko
Haram said. The blast in the Borno state capital happened as traders were
wrapping up business for the day. AFP PHOTO
The violence on Thursday came as
Buhari ended his first foreign trip since taking office.
He visited Chad and Niger, which
with Cameroon are Nigeria’s key allies in the battle against an Islamist
uprising blamed for 15,000 deaths since 2009.
Buhari urged closer regional
security cooperation, thanking troops from Nigeria’s neighbours for their
efforts to date while demanding more action from a multi-national force
battling the insurgents on the frontline.
He vowed to crush the Islamists when
he was sworn in one week ago but the spate of bombings through his first week
in office highlighted the severity of the challenge.
Boko Haram has been weakened by a
four-nation offensive launched in February but the extremists have proved
resilient in the past.
A new video released by the group —
its first for several months and first under the banner of the “Islamic State
in West Africa” — insisted the rebels were still to be reckoned with.
– Toll rises –
Yola had been seen as a relative
safe haven in Nigeria’s embattled northeast, with no confirmed Islamist attacks
in several years.
The fresh explosion hit the popular
Jimeta Main Market at about 7:40 pm (1840 GMT), as traders were finishing business.
“So far, we have 31 dead victims and
38 people in hospital receiving treatment”, the National Emergency Management
Agency’s coordinator in the city Sa’ad Bello told AFP.
An inital toll from the Adamawa
state police said two people were killed.
There was no immediate claim of
responsibility but the blast bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram who have
frequently targeted crowded markets.
The Maiduguri explosion outside the
Maimalari Barracks at about 5:00 pm killed four people and also resembled past
strikes by the insurgents, who have made suicide attacks the military a key
feature of their uprising.
– Regional cooperation –
Buhari was on Thursday in Chad’s
capital, N’Djamena, for talks with his counterpart Idriss Deby after visiting
Niger on Wednesday.
“Your troops have stood shoulder to
shoulder and fought gallantly with ours in the fight against the forces of
evil,” the 72-year-old former military ruler told Deby.
Deby for his part “reaffirmed Chad’s
involvement and availability” to work with Nigeria, according to a https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=6091136830218636187#editor/target=post;postID=8448399482988924057statement
from his office.
Anglophone Nigeria has typically
viewed its Francophone neighbours with suspicion, which has been blamed for the
lack of a joined-up approach in tackling the militants.
On Wednesday, the military in Abuja
announced that a Nigerian officer had taken charge of the new African
Union-backed Multi-National Joint Task Force based in N’Djamena.
The 8,700-strong unit, made up of
military personnel, police and civilians from Nigeria, Niger, Chad and
Cameroon, had been due to be deployed last November.
Buhari said “sustained and robust”
regional cooperation was essential because of the cross-border threat posed by
Boko Haram.
– Deadly week –
Buhari has ordered the military’s
command centre be moved from the capital, Abuja, to Maiduguri, where Boko Haram
was founded in 2002 and which is regarded as its spiritual home.
The army has since been tested with
two rocket attacks on the city, as well as an explosion opposite a military
facility on Wednesday, which left at least 18 dead.
There were also two suicide bomb
attacks — one at a mosque on Saturday that killed 26 and another on Tuesday at
a cattle market, in which 13 people died.
While Maiduguri residents have come
to expect relentless bombings, a surge of violence in Yola will create new
challenges for Buhari as he strives to pacify the northeast.
The city has been home to hundreds
of thousands of people displaced by fighting elsewhere in the region.
Hundreds of women and children
kidnapped by Boko Haram have also been brought to camps in the city after they
were rescued during recent military operations in the rebels’ Sambisa Forest
stronghold in Borno.
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