A suicide bomb attack has killed more than a dozen people at a crowded bus station in Potiskum, north-eastern Nigeria.
A witness told the BBC that a bomber tried to board a bus as transport officials were loading it.
Hospital sources say 13 corpses have been taken to the town's mortuary and more than 30 people have been injured.
It is the second attack on Potiskum in recent days. Both have been blamed on the militant group Boko Haram.
The Kano-bound bus was completely destroyed and other vehicles at the Dan-Borno bus station were also affected in Tuesday's explosion.
Although no group has claimed responsibility for the latest attack, Boko Haram has stepped up suicide bombings against civilians in recent months.
On Sunday, a young girl with explosives strapped to her killed five people and wounded dozens at a security checkpoint outside a market in Potiskum.
Boko Haram now controls vast swathes of north-east Nigeria and has displaced over 1.5 million people.
The mounting threat of the Islamist insurgency has already led to postponement of February's presidential elections, with the vote now due to take place on 28 March.
The delay is designed to give the Nigerian military time to re-establish its presence in the area. However, opponents of President Goodluck Jonathan have claimed that the delay is actually a political tactic.
The group is under increased pressure from the Nigerian troops as well as those of Chad, Niger, and Cameroon.
BBC
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Monday, February 23, 2015
Suicide bomb attack by young girl leaves 5 dead in North Eastern Nigeria
A girl suicide bomber as young as 7 blew herself up at a busy market in the northeastern Nigerian town of Potiskum on Sunday, killing four others and seriously wounding 46 people, a witness and hospital records show.
The girl who appeared no more than 10 years old got out of a tricycle taxi in front of the cellphone market and detonated her explosives on Potiskum’s main market day, according to survivor Anazumi Saleh, who suffered injuries to his head.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the attack bears all the signs of similar bombings by Boko Haram and raises fears that Nigeria’s home-grown Islamic extremists are using kidnap victims as bombers.
Meanwhile, a new group releasing propaganda for Boko Haram denied a Ministry of Defence statement that troops Friday seized back the border garrison town of Baga.
It comes amid reports that military from Nigeria and neighbouring Chad are retaking towns and villages held for months by Boko Haram even as the extremists attack other northeastern communities. Scores of civilians have been killed in such attacks in recent days.
“Baga still is under the control of the mujahedeen and any claim by the regime that they took the city is their usual lie,” said a brief message posted on the Twitter account of Al-Urwa Al-Wuthqa, according to the SITE intelligence monitoring service.
The Associated Press was trying to verify the situation in Baga, a town on Lake Chad and the border with Cameroon where the extremists are accused of killing hundreds of people in a January attack after Nigerian troops fled.
The government hopes the military will be able to reclaim enough territory to allowpresidential elections March 28, which Boko Haram is threatening to disrupt.
The vote looks like it will be the most closely contested in the history of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its biggest oil producer. Boko Haram has warned it will disrupt the elections by attacking polling stations and denounced democracy as a corrupt Western concept.
The Star
The girl who appeared no more than 10 years old got out of a tricycle taxi in front of the cellphone market and detonated her explosives on Potiskum’s main market day, according to survivor Anazumi Saleh, who suffered injuries to his head.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the attack bears all the signs of similar bombings by Boko Haram and raises fears that Nigeria’s home-grown Islamic extremists are using kidnap victims as bombers.
Meanwhile, a new group releasing propaganda for Boko Haram denied a Ministry of Defence statement that troops Friday seized back the border garrison town of Baga.
It comes amid reports that military from Nigeria and neighbouring Chad are retaking towns and villages held for months by Boko Haram even as the extremists attack other northeastern communities. Scores of civilians have been killed in such attacks in recent days.
“Baga still is under the control of the mujahedeen and any claim by the regime that they took the city is their usual lie,” said a brief message posted on the Twitter account of Al-Urwa Al-Wuthqa, according to the SITE intelligence monitoring service.
The Associated Press was trying to verify the situation in Baga, a town on Lake Chad and the border with Cameroon where the extremists are accused of killing hundreds of people in a January attack after Nigerian troops fled.
The government hopes the military will be able to reclaim enough territory to allowpresidential elections March 28, which Boko Haram is threatening to disrupt.
The vote looks like it will be the most closely contested in the history of Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and its biggest oil producer. Boko Haram has warned it will disrupt the elections by attacking polling stations and denounced democracy as a corrupt Western concept.
The Star
Friday, February 20, 2015
Video - Nigeria prepares for presidential elections
Nigerians were due to vote this week – but plans have changed. Citing security concerns, the electoral body has postponed the elections until 28 March – a move welcomed by the ruling party but taken with contention by many onlookers. Was the postponement warranted? And will it make a difference?
Related story: Video - Nigeria presidential campaign on social media
158 kidnapped women and children freed from Boko Haram in Nigeria
A group of 158 women and children abducted by Boko Haram militants in north-eastern Nigeria in December have been reunited with their families.
They were kidnapped during a raid on Katarko village in Yobe state and spent about a month in captivity.
The circumstances of their release are unclear but they were eventually handed over to the state authorities for counselling and rehabilitation.
Officials said the reunion in the state capital, Damaturu, was jubilant.
In April last year, the Islamist insurgents caused worldwide outrage when they kidnapped more than 200 girls from a boarding school in Chibok in Borno state, which borders Yobe.
The schoolgirls have yet to be rescued despite military assistance from countries such as China, France, the UK and the US.
'Very happy'
Of the 158 people reunited with their families, 62 were married women and the rest were children, Musa Idi Jidawa, the secretary of Yobe's State Emergency Management Agency (Sema), told the BBC.
He said husbands of 16 of the women had been killed by Boko Haram during the attack.
Muhammdu Katarko said he was very happy to see his two daughters at the reunion on Thursday.
"I had given up when they were kidnapped; my hope was to see even their dead bodies," he told the BBC Hausa service.
"But fortunately I have now seen them alive, health and hearty."
One of the abductees, who requested anonymity, told reporters in Damaturu that they were treated humanely by the militants.
She said the insurgents did not rape or abuse the women during their stay.
The BBC's Ishaq Khalid reporting from neighbouring Bauchi state says there were conflicting accounts about how the abductees gained their freedom.
Some reports suggested the insurgents released them voluntarily and took them to the outskirts of Damaturu, he says.
But Mr Jidawa said the militants had come under attack from the security forces and they had run away, leaving behind their captives.
The reunited families will stay in Damaturu until it is safe to return to their village, which is still occupied by Boko Haram fighters and is in an area where the military is carrying out operations.
BBC
They were kidnapped during a raid on Katarko village in Yobe state and spent about a month in captivity.
The circumstances of their release are unclear but they were eventually handed over to the state authorities for counselling and rehabilitation.
Officials said the reunion in the state capital, Damaturu, was jubilant.
In April last year, the Islamist insurgents caused worldwide outrage when they kidnapped more than 200 girls from a boarding school in Chibok in Borno state, which borders Yobe.
The schoolgirls have yet to be rescued despite military assistance from countries such as China, France, the UK and the US.
'Very happy'
Of the 158 people reunited with their families, 62 were married women and the rest were children, Musa Idi Jidawa, the secretary of Yobe's State Emergency Management Agency (Sema), told the BBC.
He said husbands of 16 of the women had been killed by Boko Haram during the attack.
Muhammdu Katarko said he was very happy to see his two daughters at the reunion on Thursday.
"I had given up when they were kidnapped; my hope was to see even their dead bodies," he told the BBC Hausa service.
"But fortunately I have now seen them alive, health and hearty."
One of the abductees, who requested anonymity, told reporters in Damaturu that they were treated humanely by the militants.
She said the insurgents did not rape or abuse the women during their stay.
The BBC's Ishaq Khalid reporting from neighbouring Bauchi state says there were conflicting accounts about how the abductees gained their freedom.
Some reports suggested the insurgents released them voluntarily and took them to the outskirts of Damaturu, he says.
But Mr Jidawa said the militants had come under attack from the security forces and they had run away, leaving behind their captives.
The reunited families will stay in Damaturu until it is safe to return to their village, which is still occupied by Boko Haram fighters and is in an area where the military is carrying out operations.
BBC
Thursday, February 19, 2015
Air Strike in Niger kills 37 civilians
Thirty-seven people have died in an air strike in southern Niger, local officials say.
They were attending a funeral ceremony in Abadam village on the border with Nigeria when an unidentified plane began dropping bombs.
The incident came as the Nigerian army said more than 300 militants were killed in nearby north-east Nigeria during operations targeting Boko Haram.
Two soldiers lost their lives and 10 more were wounded in Borno state.
Nigerian defence spokesman Chris Olukolade said that a number of Boko Haram fighters had been captured and weapons and equipment seized.
The number of militant deaths has not been independently verified.
'Three bombs'
A military official told AFP news agency that an air strike had hit a mosque in the village of Abadam.
The deputy mayor of Abadam, Ibrahim Ari, told the BBC that a plane had dropped three bombs. One struck a group of mourners sitting in front of the residence of a local chief.
He added that more than 20 people had been injured during the incident.
It is not yet clear who was responsible for the bombardment, but Nigeria has denied responsibility.
"It's not to my knowledge and there has not been any report from our people of such an incident," said Dele Alonge, a spokesman for Nigeria's air force.
'Desperate response'
Niger has been the target of bombings in the past, blamed on Boko Haram since it widened its brutal insurgency.
Thousands of civilians and soldiers have been killed during the group's campaign for a breakaway Islamic state.
Niger, Chad and Cameroon have recently formed a military coalition with Nigeria to help combat the threat.
Nigerian forces have been accused of overstating enemy casualties in the past.
But the two-day operation against militants in Borno State had inflicted "massive casualties", Mr Olukolade said.
He told the BBC he was not surprised Boko Haram was continuing to carry out attacks despite "heat" from coalition troops.
"What you see are elements of their desperate response to the ongoing onslaught on their various camps and locations.
"It is expected and it will be contained accordingly," he added.
BBC
They were attending a funeral ceremony in Abadam village on the border with Nigeria when an unidentified plane began dropping bombs.
The incident came as the Nigerian army said more than 300 militants were killed in nearby north-east Nigeria during operations targeting Boko Haram.
Two soldiers lost their lives and 10 more were wounded in Borno state.
Nigerian defence spokesman Chris Olukolade said that a number of Boko Haram fighters had been captured and weapons and equipment seized.
The number of militant deaths has not been independently verified.
'Three bombs'
A military official told AFP news agency that an air strike had hit a mosque in the village of Abadam.
The deputy mayor of Abadam, Ibrahim Ari, told the BBC that a plane had dropped three bombs. One struck a group of mourners sitting in front of the residence of a local chief.
He added that more than 20 people had been injured during the incident.
It is not yet clear who was responsible for the bombardment, but Nigeria has denied responsibility.
"It's not to my knowledge and there has not been any report from our people of such an incident," said Dele Alonge, a spokesman for Nigeria's air force.
'Desperate response'
Niger has been the target of bombings in the past, blamed on Boko Haram since it widened its brutal insurgency.
Thousands of civilians and soldiers have been killed during the group's campaign for a breakaway Islamic state.
Niger, Chad and Cameroon have recently formed a military coalition with Nigeria to help combat the threat.
Nigerian forces have been accused of overstating enemy casualties in the past.
But the two-day operation against militants in Borno State had inflicted "massive casualties", Mr Olukolade said.
He told the BBC he was not surprised Boko Haram was continuing to carry out attacks despite "heat" from coalition troops.
"What you see are elements of their desperate response to the ongoing onslaught on their various camps and locations.
"It is expected and it will be contained accordingly," he added.
BBC
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