Explosions Kill More Than 100 at Mosque in Nigerian City

By Mustapha Muhammad  

Photographer: Aminu Abubakar/AFP via Getty Images

A young man looks after his brother victim of twin suicide blasts at Kano central... Read More

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ordered a “full-scale” investigation into explosions at a mosque in the northern city of Kano that killed more than 100 people.
The blasts targeted Muslim worshipers as they gathered for prayers yesterday and left at least 109 people dead, Ibrahim Shehu, a nurse at the Murtala Mohammed General Hospital in Kano, said in an interview. The death toll may rise as the number of casualties is counted at two other hospitals, he said.
Jonathan directed security agencies to “leave no stone unturned until all agents of terror undermining the right of every citizen to life and dignity, are tracked down,’” his spokesman Reuben Abati said in e-mailed statement. The president “reiterates the determination of the
government to continue to take every step to put an end to the reprehensible acts.”
While no group claimed responsibility for the explosions, the Islamist militant group Boko Haram has previously said it carried out suicide-bomb attacks on mosques and churches in Africa’s biggest oil producer as the group seeks to impose its version of Islamic law in the country. Nigeria is split almost equally between Christians in the south and Muslims in the north.
The Islamists in 2012 carried out attacks on three churches in the northern cities of Kaduna and Zaria that killed scores of people and sparked clashes between Christians and Muslims. In May, the insurgents killed more than 100 people in Gamborou, a village in Borno state, as they opened fire on worshipers in a mosque and traders in the town’s market, and set fire to homes.

U.S. Condemnation

The U.S. State Department said in a statement last night that the Kano attacks “while as yet unclaimed, have all of the hallmarks of Boko Haram and the group’s disregard for human life as it continues in its efforts to destabilize Nigeria.”
Two explosions went off on the premises of the central mosque near the Emir’s palace in Kano followed by a third in a crowd of worshipers, Saminu Hassan, a witness to the blasts, said by phone.
“We have been evacuating the dead bodies and those that sustained injuries to Murtala General Hospital using tricycles and buses,” said another witness, Abazarru Idriss.
Police have confirmed 36 deaths, Sunusi Lemu, Kano’s acting police commissioner, told reporters. More than 150 people were injured, he said. Three suspected attackers were lynched by angry youths at the scene, Lemu said.

Second Attack

The Kano attack followed an explosion in the city of Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, that didn’t injure anyone, a member of a vigilante group, Mohammed Ibrahim, said by phone from the northeastern city.
A roadside bomb on Nov. 27 killed 35 people in the northeastern town of Mubi, Young Moris, the head of a local group of hunters that’s joined government forces in the battle against the Islamist militants, said.
Jonathan said in September that Boko Haram, which means “Western education is a sin” in the Hausa language, has killed more than 13,000 people since the start of its insurgency.
To contact the reporter on this story: Mustapha Muhammad in Kano at mmuhammad10@bloomberg.net