Explosions at two bus stations in the northeastern town of Gombe on Wednesday night killed 29 people, officials said. Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency called for urgent blood donations to treat a further 105 people injured in the assaults.
The bombings represent the latest in a series of attacks by the insurgent group in Nigeria and across the country’s borders. In neighboring Cameroon on Wednesday, two suicide bombers killed at least 18 people at a marketplace near the border, officials said.
Nigerian authorities have come under increasing pressure to confront the threat of Boko Haram, a group that has waged a brutal campaign against civilians as it seeks to carve out a separate state in northern Nigeria.
More than 2,600 people have been killed by the group since January, according to the Council of Foreign Relation’s Nigeria security tracker.
Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari returned to the capital, Abuja, on Thursday following a four-day visit to the United States. During his visit, he was warmly received by President Barack Obama but failed to get all he wanted.
“Buhari returns to Abuja, with no weapons sale from USA,” said a headline in Nigeria's The News.
Buhari told policymakers at the U.S. Institute for Peace on Wednesday that Nigeria's armed forces are “largely impotent” because they do not possess the appropriate weapons to fight Boko Haram.
He urged the U.S. president and Congress to find ways around the Leahy Law, which prohibits sales of certain weapons to countries whose military are accused of gross human rights violations.
Amnesty International says Nigeria's military is responsible for the deaths of 8,000 detainees — twice as many as Boko Haram's victims in the first four years of its 6-year-old insurgency.
“The application of the Leahy law ... has aided and abetted the Boko Haram terrorist group in the prosecution of its extremist ideology and hate, the indiscriminate killings and maiming of civilians, in raping of women and girls, and in their other heinous crimes,” Buhari said.
Aljazeera
Thursday, July 23, 2015
Video - President Muhammadu Buhari says U.S. aiding Boko Haram with arms ban
The US has "aided and abetted" the Boko Haram Islamist militant group by refusing to provide weapons to Nigeria, President Muhammadu Buhari says.
A US law prevents the government from selling arms to countries which fail to tackle human rights abuses.
Mr Buhari met President Barack Obama in Washington on Monday to seek further assistance.
Boko Haram has killed some 10,000 people since 2009 and has also kidnapped hundreds of girls and women.
Last month, human rights group Amnesty International said that some 8,000 men and boys had died in Nigerian military custody after being detained as suspected militants.
The military rejected this allegation, Nigeria's president promised an investigation but there have been no further details.
The US has previously promised some $5m (£3.2m) in military assistance to the regional coalition helping to fight Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State.
However, Mr Buhari heavily criticised the US, especially the Leahy Law, which links military sales to human rights.
The Nigerian military did "not possess the appropriate weapons and technology which we could have had if the so-called human rights violations had not been an obstacle," he told the United States Institute of Peace on Wednesday.
"Unwittingly, and I dare say unintentionally, the application of the Leahy Law Amendment by the United States government has aided and abetted the Boko Haram terrorists."
In the latest suspected Boko Haram attack, at least 29 people were killed in bomb blasts at two bus stations in the north-eastern city of Gombe on Wednesday.
At least 11 people were earlier killed in the Cameroonian town of Maroua, just over the border from Gombe.
Boko Haram last year seized a huge area of north-eastern Nigeria, before being beaten back by a regional coalition, including Cameroon, Chad and Niger.
Mr Buhari was elected in March, partly on a pledge to defeat Boko Haram.
BBC
Wednesday, July 22, 2015
Video - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry meets with Nigeria President Muhammadu Buhari
Secretary Kerry hosts Muhammadu Buhari, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, for a working lunch at Department of State on July 21, 2015.
Video - President Muhammadu Buhari speaks with CNN's Christiane Amanpour
In an exclusive interview during his visit to America, Muhammadu Buhari speaks with Christiane Amanpour about terrorism, corruption, and his meetings with Obama.
Video - Nigerian artists win big at the 2015 MTV Africa Awards
The South African city of Durban played host to the fifth MTV Africa Music Awards over the weekend.
Hosted by American comedian and actor Anthony Anderson, the ceremony celebrates African music, and most importantly, African youth culture.
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