Deadly suicide blasts in Nigeria as boko haram reasserts Anti-Christian agenda

Nigeria, May 24, 2014: Scores of people have been killed in suicide bombings in Nigeria as Boko Haram reasserts its agenda: “war against Christians”.

At least 118 people were killed in a double bombing in Jos, Plateau State, in Nigeria’s Middle Belt on Tuesday (20 May). The first bomb was detonated at 3pm, the second around half an hour later in a busy market area. The death toll is expected to rise as the search for bodies among the rubble continues.

On Sunday (18 May), at least five people were killed in a blast in the predominantly Christian Sabon Gari district of Kano in the North. A car bomb was detonated at around 10pm along Gold Coast Road, where Christians were gathered in bars and restaurants.

A girl aged around 12 was among those killed. Kano police said five people – including the bomber – died in the blast, but Christian sources put the death toll at around 20.

Islamist militant group Boko Haram is suspected of carrying out the attacks.

A church leader in Kano, the Rev. Murtala Marti, told Morning Star News that three churches in the Sabon Gari area were probably the original target:

Most often the plot is to get at churches, but when it becomes impossible for the terrorists to get there, they usually detonate their bombs anywhere Christians are gathered, either in churches or restaurants.

Sabon Gari has been targeted previously; blasts in March and July 2013 claimed around 50 lives, and coordinated attacks in January 2012 killed around 150 people.

The latest bombings come as the translation of a one-hour video by Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is released in which he reiterates the group’s agenda:

This is a war against Christians and democracy and their constitution. Allah says we should finish them when we get them.

He referred to the US-led campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan as wars waged in the name of Christianity and said that there was now “a jihad war against Christians and Christianity”, which is “a war against Western education, democracy and constitution”. Addressing “the people of the world”, he said, “either you are with us Mujahedeen or you are with the Christians”.

Boko Haram’s brutal campaign to establish an Islamic state in Northern Nigeria has attracted greater international attention since the group kidnapped over 200 mostly Christian schoolgirls last month.

US, British, French, Spanish and Israeli military units are helping in the continued search for the girls, who Shekau said last week had converted to Islam.

African leaders met in Paris at the weekend and agreed to wage “war” on Boko Haram. French President Francois Hollande hosted Nigeria’s Goodluck Jonathan and the leaders of Benin, Cameroon, Niger and Chad. They pledged to share intelligence and coordinate action against the group.

– barnabas team