KANO,
Nigeria — Gunmen set off three bombs and fired on worshippers at the
central mosque of north Nigeria's biggest city Kano for Friday prayers,
witnesses said, an attack that bore the hallmarks of Islamist Boko
Haram militants.
It
was not immediately possible to determine a reliable death toll in the
chaotic aftermath of the attack but the area had been densely packed
with worshippers. A police spokesman in Kano declined to make any
immediate comment.
"These
people have bombed the mosque. I am face to face with people
screaming," said Chijjani Usman, a local reporter who had gone to the
mosque in the old city for prayers himself.
The
mosque is adjacent to the palace of the emir of Kano, the second
highest Islamic authority in Africa's most populous country, although
the emir himself, former central bank governor Lamido Sanusi, was not
present.
"Three
bombs were planted in the courtyard to the mosque and they went off
simultaneously," a security source who declined to be named said.
A
staff member at the palace who also witnessed the attack said: "After
multiple explosions, they also opened fire. I cannot tell you the
casualties because we all ran away."
Angry youths blocked the mosque's gates to police, who had to disperse them with tear gas to gain entry.
No
one quickly claimed responsibility but suspicion quickly fell on Boko
Haram, a Sunni jihadist movement whose name means "Western education is
forbidden". Since 2009 it has fought to revive a medieval Islamic
caliphate under strict sharia law.
Boko
Haram regards the traditional Islamic religious authorities in Nigeria
with disdain, considering them a corrupt, self-serving elite that is too
close to the secular government.
The
insurgents have killed thousands in gun and bomb attacks on churches,
schools, police stations, military and government buildings, and even
mosques that do not share their radical Islamist ideology.
A MILLION DISPLACED
The
insurgency has displaced over one million people during its campaign
focused on Nigeria's northeast, the Red Cross told reporters on Friday,
an increase on a September U.N. refugee agency estimate of 700,000.
Islamic
leaders sometimes shy away from direct criticism of Boko Haram for fear
of reprisals. But Sanusi, angered by atrocities such as the kidnapping
of 200 schoolgirls from the village of Chibok in April, has been
increasingly vocal.
He
was quoted in the local press as calling on Nigerians this month to
defend themselves against Boko Haram. During a broadcast recitation of
the Koran he was reported to have said:
"These
people, when they attack towns, they kill boys and enslave girls.
People must stand resolute ... They should acquire what they can to
defend themselves. People must not wait for soldiers to protect them."
Persisting
insecurity is dogging President Goodluck Jonathan's campaign for
re-election to a second term in February 2015. He has asked parliament
for approval to extend an 18-month-old state of emergency in the
northeast.
Friday's
attack came a day after a roadside bomb tore through a bus station near
a busy junction in the northeast, killing 40 people including five
soldiers.
Comments
Post a Comment