The burnt First African Church Mission of Jos is pictured yesterday in Jos after twin bomb blasts.
AFP/Lagos
At least 44 people were killed in twin bomb blasts in the central Nigerian city of Jos, the emergency services said yesterday, after a wave of mass casualty attacks blamed on Boko Haram militants.
Sunday’s bombings took the death toll from raids, explosions and suicide attacks to 267 this month alone and to 524 since Muhammadu Buhari became president on May 29, according to an AFP count.
The former army general has repeatedly vowed to crush the Islamists and is eyeing the deployment of a strengthened regional force at the end of this month to deliver a hammer blow.
But with the death toll rising, attacks increasing and the military seemingly unable to prevent attacks on civilians, he will be under pressure to act fast.
Sunday’s blasts happened within minutes of each other at a shopping complex and near a mosque in the religiously divided capital of Plateau state, which the rebels have targeted before.
“At the moment we have 44 dead bodies and 47 others injured from the scenes of the two attacks,” Mohammed Abdulsalam, from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) told AFP. Umar Abubakar, who was at the Yantaya mosque for the “Tafsir” or Koran commentary session, said a number of attackers opened fire from outside at about 9.20pm (2020 GMT).
“They fire an RPG (rocket propelled grenade) at the mosque but it hit a metal bar on the facade and exploded,” he said. “Many people were killed and injured from the shooting and the explosion.
“It was a miracle I escaped because I can’t explain how it happened.”
Daybreak showed the mosque pockmarked with bullet holes and stained with blood, while footwear, books and other personal items were strewn on the ground.
The second attack targeted the packed Shagalinku restaurant in a shopping complex on the Bauchi Road, which is popular with travellers from the northeast.
Local resident Mohamed Shafii, who is a regular at the restaurant, said the whole neighbourhood shook from the blast and he counted 25 bodies, including four waitresses.
“The restaurant was badly damaged. Bits of human flesh, blood stains, plastic tables and chairs and all sorts of personal items litter the place,” he said.
The carnage in Jos followed a suicide attack on a church in the northeastern city of Potiskum on Sunday, which left five people dead, including the pastor, a woman and her two children.
Last week, Islamist militants fighters raided a number of villages around the Lake Chad area, killing more than 150 worshippers as they prayed in mosques.
Buhari said on Sunday that Boko Haram, which has allied itself to the Islamic State group in Syria and Iraq, had “declared war on all that we value”.
He promised to do “everything possible to eradicate Boko Haram, terrorism and mindless extremism from Nigeria in the shortest possible time”.
Boko Haram’s resumption of guerrilla-style tactics against “soft” civilian targets follows its capture of territory across the northeast last year.
The insurgents have been pushed out towns and villages since the turn of the year but the attacks demonstrate the group is not a spent force.
Security analysts have suggested a decline in intensity of operations by the existing multilateral force of Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Cameroon has allowed the rebels to regroup and rearm. They also said the increase in attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan has coincided with Buhari distracted by other pressing issues such as tackling the faltering economy.
Gunmen suspected of being cattle thieves killed at least 37 people in a village in northern Nigeria’s Zamfara state, a local government official said yesterday.
“The gunmen killed 37 people in the attack on Cigama village shortly after they attacked Kokeya village where they killed two people,” Muhamed Bala Gusami told AFP after Saturday’s violence.
“The attack on Cigama was obviously in response to the deployment by vigilantes from the village to nearby Kokeya which helped in pushing the bandits out,” he said.
Gusami, who is the administrator of the local government area, said some 50 gunmen had taken part in the attack on Cigama, shooting indiscriminately.
He said several houses were burnt down and herds of cattle stolen during the attack.
Zamfara state has seen repeated incidents of cattle rustling and deadly raids on farming villages, prompting local communities to set up vigilante groups to counter the bandits.
The vigilantes are often accused of carrying out extra-judicial killings of suspected rustlers.
In retaliation, armed gangs on motorcycles are said to have raided villages to avenge the killing of their colleagues.
In June 2013, more than 50 people were killed when around 150 attackers stormed Kizara village to avenge the killing of their comrades by local vigilantes.
