21 WORLD CUP FANS KILLED, 17 WOUNDED IN NIGERIA BOMB BLAST
Nigerians are immediately blaming the Islamic extremist group Boko
Haram after an explosion killed 21 people, wounding 17 at a shopping mall in the
capital, Abuja on Wednesday.
The blast came as many Nigerians were preparing to watch their
country's Super Eagles play Argentina at the World Cup in Brazil.
Many
shops at the mall have TV screens but it was unclear if the explosion
was timed to coincide with the match, which started an hour later.
Victims injured by the blast in the crowded shopping district
are taken to the nearby Maitama general hospital in Abuja. The explosion
tore through the popular shopping centre during rush hour on Wednesday,
a police spokesman said.
Boko Haram has yet to claim the attack, but it is similar to other bombings that have rocked Nigeria in recent months.
After the blast, witnesses said body parts were scattered
around the exit to Emab Plaza, in Abuja's upscale Wuse 2 suburb. All
spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
- Soldiers shot and killed one suspect as he tried to escape on a power bike and police detained a second suspect, said government spokesman Mike Omeri in a statement.
- Billows of black smoke could be seen from a kilometre away. Police said 17 vehicles were burnt out in the blast.
- "I heard the explosion and (felt) the building shaking," said Shuaibu Baba, who had a narrow escape. He said he rushed downstairs to find that the driver who had dropped him a few minutes earlier was dead.
Source: CBC...More News...
AFRICA KIDNAPPED NIGERIAN GIRLS DESCRIBE KIDNAPPING ORDEAL
Some of the girls who managed to escape after being abducted last month from a school in northeastern Nigeria by the group Boko Haram have given harrowing accounts of their ordeal. 
Standing alongside their parents, the students described how the gunmen commanded the hundreds of students at the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School to gather outside, before going into a storeroom and taking all the food.
More than 300 girls were abducted on April 15 from their school in Chibok in the country's remote northeast. Fifty-three escaped and 276 remain captive.
The escaped girls spoke to visiting Borno state officials on May 5. In the video, which was handed out by the Borno State governor's office, the women gathered at the school cried, as the students spoke of their ordeal.
Source: CNN, Agency
NIGERIAN BOKO HARAM PLANS TO SELL THE 276 ABDUCTED GIRLS TO THE MARKET?
Suspected
Boko Haram gunmen have kidnapped eight girls aged between 12 and 15
from a village near one of their strongholds in northeast Nigeria.
A police source said the girls were taken away in the early hours of Tuesday on trucks, along with looted livestock and food.
The Islamist rebels are still holding 276 girls they abducted from a secondary school on April 14.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau said in a video released on Monday that Allah had told him to sell the girls taken by his fighters from a secondary school in the village of Chibok, in northeastern Borno state.
The abduction on Tuesday appears to bear similarities to the mass kidnapping
on Good Friday.
In the Chibok attack, as with the Warabe seizure, the militants arrived
disguised as soldiers.
Source: CNN
NIGERIA ‘BOKO HARAM’ GUNMEN KILL 44 AT MOSQUE
At least 44 worshipers have been shot dead at a mosque
in north-eastern Nigeria, officials in Borno state say.
The killings took place during dawn prayers on Sunday, although news only
emerged on Monday, as communications are disrupted by a state of emergency.
The attack occurred in the town of Konduga, 35km (22 miles) from the state
capital, Maiduguri.
The gunmen are suspected of being from the Islamist group Boko Haram, which
has killed thousands since 2009. Twelve further civilians were killed at Ngom village, closer to Maiduguri,
reports say.
A member of a civilian vigilante group told
the Associated Press that four of their number were killed when they
responded to calls for help in Konduga.
Several such groups have been set up since the emergency was declared in Borno and two neighbouring states in May.
BBC Nigeria correspondent Will Ross says the gunmen may have
attacked the mosque in the belief that some of the vigilantes were
praying there.
Source: BBC...More...
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
