Suspected Islamist militants detonated a bomb in a crowded marketplace in northeastern Nigeria killing at least 20 people, witnesses said on Sunday.
Nigerian security officials said the attack late on Saturday in the town of Bama in Borno state bore the hallmarks of an attack by the al Qaeda-linked militant group Boko Haram, which is fighting to carve an Islamic state out of northeast Nigeria.
Security sources say Boko Haram has killed hundreds, possibly thousands, this year in a campaign of violence that is growing in intensity.
"I travelled to Bama ...to buy bags of beans. Suddenly, there was a deafening bang at the middle of the market. It was in the late afternoon and commercial activities were at their peak," said Shuaibu Abdulahi, a trader at the market. He estimated the death toll to be as high as 29.
Abba Tahir, a bus driver who was offloading passengers at the market, said he counted 20 bodies.
"People were helping in evacuating the corpses after the confusion had died down. Some people who were injured were taken to the general hospital," Tahir said.
There was no claim of responsibility for the attack. The military spokesman for Borno state did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A military crackdown since last May has failed to quell the insurgency, which after four and a half years remains the leading security threat to Africa's top oil producer.
Borno state has ordered all of its schools to shut before the end of term to protect children after Islamists killed dozens of pupils in an attack last month, state officials said on Friday.
Security officials said Boko Haram had shot or burned to death at least 29 pupils in a boarding school in northeast Nigeria. A journalist who counted bodies in the morgue after the attack put the figure at 59.
The failure of the military to protect civilians is fuelling anger in the northeast, although state security officials have claimed some recent successes, including killing several militants as they tried to escape from a prison in Borno's state capital Maiduguri this month.
Reuters
Monday, March 24, 2014
Police investigate house of horror in Ibadan
Nigerian police have opened a murder investigation after human skeletons and body parts were discovered in an abandoned building in the south-west.
Officers also rescued several people nearby who had been chained together and appeared severely malnourished.
The alarm had been raised by motorcycle taxi riders in the city of Ibadan after some of their colleagues went missing.
Several people have been arrested in the city - Nigeria's third largest - a police spokeswoman said.
Living skeletons
When police searched the abandoned building - dubbed the "house of horror" by the media - they found skeletons, decomposing bodies, skulls and bones on bloodstained floors.
A number of people were found shackled in leg-irons inside the building.
"Some seven malnourished human beings looking like living skeletons were also rescued in the bushes surrounding the building," police spokeswoman Olabisi Ilobanafor told AFP.
She said the motorbike riders had stumbled on the bodies after complaining to police about the disappearance of colleagues in suspicious circumstances.
"It is not a common occurrence in Ibadan or in the (Oyo) state. The police will investigate this crime in all its ramifications," she said.
Observers say some victims of kidnapping are often tortured or used as sacrifices in black magic rituals.
BBC
Officers also rescued several people nearby who had been chained together and appeared severely malnourished.
The alarm had been raised by motorcycle taxi riders in the city of Ibadan after some of their colleagues went missing.
Several people have been arrested in the city - Nigeria's third largest - a police spokeswoman said.
Living skeletons
When police searched the abandoned building - dubbed the "house of horror" by the media - they found skeletons, decomposing bodies, skulls and bones on bloodstained floors.
A number of people were found shackled in leg-irons inside the building.
"Some seven malnourished human beings looking like living skeletons were also rescued in the bushes surrounding the building," police spokeswoman Olabisi Ilobanafor told AFP.
She said the motorbike riders had stumbled on the bodies after complaining to police about the disappearance of colleagues in suspicious circumstances.
"It is not a common occurrence in Ibadan or in the (Oyo) state. The police will investigate this crime in all its ramifications," she said.
Observers say some victims of kidnapping are often tortured or used as sacrifices in black magic rituals.
BBC
Thursday, March 20, 2014
Nigerian filmmaker Kunle Afolayan talks with SaharaTV about his career and the industry
Award winning Nigerian film maker, Kunle Afolayan has produced movies that won for him international accolades. The veteran actor shares with SaharaTV his definition of "Nollywood", what it takes to make quality movies in Nigeria and his passion for making film with special cut on African culture.
Wednesday, March 19, 2014
Video - KICKTV profiles Nigeria's Super Eagles ahead of 2014 World Cup
The World Cup is less than 100 days away, and to kick things off, KICKTV in partnership with Howler Magazine is rolling out its World Cup Crash Course. Next up, Nigeria. The Super Eagles are bringing a strong mix of veterans and youngsters. But will it be enough to get out of their group?
Oil reserves in Nigeria drop to 35 billion barrels
The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) said on Tuesday that Nigeria oil reserves had dropped from 40 billion to 35 billion barrels.
A Director in the department, Mr George Osahon, made this known in an interview with newsmen at the ongoing Oil and Gas Seminar in Abuja.
Osahon attributed the development to reduction in oil production in the country.
He said that some oil wells in the Niger Delta had stopped production because they had attained “maturity.”
He also said that vandalism and other unwholesome acts in the oil distribution process in the region accounted for the drop in production of crude oil.
Osahon said that the situation called for worry, adding that there was urgent need to boost oil exploration in order to shore up the dwindling reserves.
“Oil reserves are dropping and our output is dropping too. What we are supposed to do to correct this is to continue to explore and explore and explore for more oil.
“We started with ‘2D seismic’; now we are at the ‘3D seismic’. Already, 1,300 exploration wells have been drilled so far.
“We need to do more in this regard so as to have more reserves. We have reached the plateau of production in the Niger Delta and we are already going down”, he said.
The director said a lot of money had been spent in the effort to increase reserves from the old fields.
On exploration at the Chad basin, he said that oil had not been found there but stressed “that we have not found anything at the Chad basin as at today does not mean that oil is not in the basin.
“We are optimistic about this. We have come up with strategies to boost our reserves and in due course, we would make this known.’’
He said that other things to do to shore up the nation’s reserves were seismic data coverage and drilling of exploration wells, enhanced recovery methods, utilisation of non-saddled reservoirs and bitumen exploration.
Vanguard
A Director in the department, Mr George Osahon, made this known in an interview with newsmen at the ongoing Oil and Gas Seminar in Abuja.
Osahon attributed the development to reduction in oil production in the country.
He said that some oil wells in the Niger Delta had stopped production because they had attained “maturity.”
He also said that vandalism and other unwholesome acts in the oil distribution process in the region accounted for the drop in production of crude oil.
Osahon said that the situation called for worry, adding that there was urgent need to boost oil exploration in order to shore up the dwindling reserves.
“Oil reserves are dropping and our output is dropping too. What we are supposed to do to correct this is to continue to explore and explore and explore for more oil.
“We started with ‘2D seismic’; now we are at the ‘3D seismic’. Already, 1,300 exploration wells have been drilled so far.
“We need to do more in this regard so as to have more reserves. We have reached the plateau of production in the Niger Delta and we are already going down”, he said.
The director said a lot of money had been spent in the effort to increase reserves from the old fields.
On exploration at the Chad basin, he said that oil had not been found there but stressed “that we have not found anything at the Chad basin as at today does not mean that oil is not in the basin.
“We are optimistic about this. We have come up with strategies to boost our reserves and in due course, we would make this known.’’
He said that other things to do to shore up the nation’s reserves were seismic data coverage and drilling of exploration wells, enhanced recovery methods, utilisation of non-saddled reservoirs and bitumen exploration.
Vanguard
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