Attacks kill 67 in Nigeria
Source: Agencies |
November 6, 2011, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
AT least 67 people died in a wave of bombings and shootings carried out in northeast Nigeria overnight, a Red Cross official said yesterday, as frightened mourners left their homes to begin burying their dead.
A newspaper says a radical Muslim sect known locally as Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the series of attacks and has promised to launch new assaults.
The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record in Nigeria's Muslim north, says Boko Haram spokesman Abul-Qaqa spoke to them and claimed responsibility for the attacks that have killed at least 67 people in and around Damaturu and Maiduguri.
The spokesman told the newspaper: "We will continue attacking federal government formations until security forces stop their excesses on our members and vulnerable civilians."
The attacks centered around Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, Nigerian Red Cross official Ibrahim Bulama said. The attack started on Friday with a car bomb exploding outside a three-story building used as a military office and barracks in the city, with many uniformed security agents dying in the blast, Bulama said.
Gunmen then went through the town, blowing up a First Bank PLC branch and attacking at least three police stations and some churches, leaving them in rubble, he said. Gunfire continued through the night and gunmen raided the village of Potiskum near the capital as well, witnesses said, leaving at least two people dead there.
Yesterday morning, people began hesitantly leaving their homes, seeing the destruction left behind, including military and police vehicles burned by the gunmen, with the burned corpses of the drivers who died in their seats.
State government officials did not respond to requests for comment.
A newspaper says a radical Muslim sect known locally as Boko Haram has claimed responsibility for the series of attacks and has promised to launch new assaults.
The Daily Trust, the newspaper of record in Nigeria's Muslim north, says Boko Haram spokesman Abul-Qaqa spoke to them and claimed responsibility for the attacks that have killed at least 67 people in and around Damaturu and Maiduguri.
The spokesman told the newspaper: "We will continue attacking federal government formations until security forces stop their excesses on our members and vulnerable civilians."
The attacks centered around Damaturu, the capital of Yobe state, Nigerian Red Cross official Ibrahim Bulama said. The attack started on Friday with a car bomb exploding outside a three-story building used as a military office and barracks in the city, with many uniformed security agents dying in the blast, Bulama said.
Gunmen then went through the town, blowing up a First Bank PLC branch and attacking at least three police stations and some churches, leaving them in rubble, he said. Gunfire continued through the night and gunmen raided the village of Potiskum near the capital as well, witnesses said, leaving at least two people dead there.
Yesterday morning, people began hesitantly leaving their homes, seeing the destruction left behind, including military and police vehicles burned by the gunmen, with the burned corpses of the drivers who died in their seats.
State government officials did not respond to requests for comment.
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