Monday, June 27, 2011

Nigeria News:

Two girls killed in fresh Nigeria blast: army
By Aminu Abubakar (AFP) 
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KANO, Nigeria — Two girls were confirmed killed and three customs officers wounded Monday in a fresh blast in a north Nigerian city where 25 people died a day earlier when suspected Islamists tossed bombs and fired on a crowded beer garden.
"Three customs officers were seriously injured in the attack while two child vendors -- both of them girls -- were killed in the blast," the army commander of the troubled city of Maiduguri's joint task force, general Jack Okechukwu Nwobo, told AFP.
Residents and witnesses put the death toll at about a dozen, however.
"I was about 100 metres (yards) from the customs bridge roundabout when the blast happened. It was a crowded area. I saw two vans conveying the dead. From my estimation, not less than 10 people were killed in the blast," resident Sheu Abdulkadir told AFP.
A local journalist said he saw several dead bodies on the ground after the blast.
"I counted at least 12," said the journalist, who did not want to be named and said he barely escaped death.
The exact nature of the blast, for which no group has claimed responsibility, was not immediately known.
It came less than 24 hours after suspected Islamists of the Boko Haram sect killed 25 people and wounded at least 30 in one of the deadliest attacks in the city in recent months, on the same day that a special task force of crack troops and security personnel took control of security operations in the city.
Two men riding motorbikes hurled three bombs into a large beer garden, fired shots and sped away after the shock attack, security sources told AFP by telephone from Maiduguri, capital of Borno State.
Security was tightened in Maiduguri on Monday.
A joint task force of soldiers, navy, air force, police, customs, immigration and secret police officers, will remain in the city until law and order is restored, army spokesman General Ralph Isah told AFP.
Amnesty International condemned the fresh attack and urged Nigerian armed groups to stop "senseless" killings of civilians -- singling out Boko Haram for a call to end its "reign of terror."
"These killings are senseless and outrageous. Direct attacks on civilians are prohibited under international law and show a complete disregard for the right to life," Tawanda Hondora, the rights body's deputy director for Africa, said in a statement.
"Boko Haram must stop its reign of terror in the country. No cause can justify the deliberate targeting of civilians," Amnesty said.
Boko Haram, which staged a short-lived uprising in 2009, is blamed for almost daily attacks that have targeted mainly police and military personnel, politicians, and community and religious leaders.
The sect, whose name means "Western education is a sin", launched an uprising in 2009 which was put down by a brutal military assault that left hundreds dead, mostly its members.
The group claimed responsibility for the attack 11 days ago on police headquarters in the Nigerian capital Abuja that killed at least two people, including a policeman, saying their target was the national police chief.
The sect also said it was behind an attack on a beer garden in a military barracks in northern Bauchi city that killed more than a dozen people hours after the inauguration of President Goodluck Jonathan.
Amnesty called on the Nigerian government to improve protection of residents in the northeast, and ensure the rule of law is respected.
"The Nigerian government can only ensure safety by investing heavily in reforming the criminal justice system, so that the perpetrators of these attacks and other human rights abuses can be properly investigated, arrested and prosecuted in fair trials."
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