SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Boko Haram Militants Attack Villages In Northeast Nigeria - Killing 86 People, Including Children!

A mother sits mourning the death of her husband after Boko Haram attacks at Dalori village on the outskirts of Maiduguri in northeastern Nigeria on January 31, 2016.
© AFP Photo

January 31, 2016 - NIGERIA - Boko Haram militants killed 86 people, including children, in their recent attack on villages in northeastern Nigeria on Saturday. Horrifying details of the attacks emerged on Sunday.

The Saturday night assault on the outskirts of the Nigerian city of Maiduguri – the birthplace of Boko Haram – lasted for hours, targeting villages and camps housing some 25,000 refugees, AP has reported, citing survivors and soldiers at the scene. By Sunday afternoon, 86 bodies had collected, officials said, adding that another 62 victims were being treated for burns.

The Islamic extremists launched the attack on the village of Dalori, where scores of charred corpses and bodies with bullet wounds could be seen lying in the streets, AP reported. “During the incident, lives were lost while some people sustained injuries,” army spokesman Colonel Mustapha Anka confirmed, according to AFP.

Citing an eyewitness surviving the attack, AP reported that Boko Haram extremists firebombed huts. The survivor said that he had heard the screams of children burning to death from a hiding place in a tree.

The shooting and burning attack was carried out by three suicide bombers and continued for nearly four hours, eyewitness who lost several family members told AP.


WATCH: Boko Haram burned people alive in northeast Nigeria.

 

After scores of villagers had been murdered in Dalori, Boko Haram attackers targeted the neighboring village of Gamori, where three female suicide bombers blew themselves up among people who had managed to escape the first wave of violence, a soldier at the scene told AP. Survivors complained that it had taken too long for military help to arrive at the scene of the massacre from nearby Maiduguri, AP reported. The first troops to arrive in Dalori were unable to overcome the attackers, as the terrorists were better armed, soldiers told AP on condition of anonymity. The extremist aggressors retreated only after reinforcements with heavier weapons arrived.

The attack came just a day after Boko Haram carried out a twin bombing that claimed the lives of 15 people in Adamawa state, which is also in the northeast of Nigeria.The Boko Haram terrorist group, whose name is literally translated “Western education is forbidden,” is believed to be even more deadly than Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL). Its extremists in Africa are said to have killed more people that IS, to which they pledged allegiance in 2015.“There is a real bias against media coverage of terrorist attacks in Africa, and especially in Nigeria,” Max Abrahms, assistant professor of political science at Northeastern University in Boston, told RT. “I think many people would be surprised to know how much killing power the main terrorist group Boko Haram has,” he said, adding that if such attacks were carried out against people in European or North American countries, “there would be much more media coverage.”

About 20,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million driven from their homes since the Nigeria-based terror group launched a military campaign in 2009, with the goal of establishing Islamist rule. The military managed to drive most of the extremists out of the towns and villages of northeastern Nigeria last year, and since then Boko Haram has been attacking soft targets, increasingly with suicide bombers.

“It’s still mostly a local operation, although, over social media in particular, Boko Haram likes to pretend as if it’s a very international group, highly connected to Islamic State,” Abrahms told RT.

“But the truth is that different affiliates have stronger or weaker relations with IS central, [and] the Boko Haram affiliation is relatively detached, unlike the one in Libya, which is actually directed by the IS leadership in Syria,” he said. - RT.

SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Boko Haram Militants Attack Three Villages In Northeast Nigeria - Killing 30 People And Injuring 20 Others!

© Akintunde Akinleye / Reuters

December 17, 2015 - NIGERIA - Boko Haram militants have killed 30 people and injured 20 in attacks on three villages in northeast Nigeria, AFP has reported, citing a local who is helping out the national army. The Islamists reportedly used machetes to “slaughter” their victims.

“Most of the victims were slaughtered and most of the wounded [had suffered] machete cuts,” said Mustapha Karimbe, a civilian who has been helping the Nigerian military fight Boko Haram.

The attacks on the three villages – Warwara, Mangari and Bura-Shika – happened on Saturday. All of the villages are located in the state of Borno, near Buratai, which is the hometown of Nigeria’s highest military chief – Tukur Yusuf Buratai.

Details of the attack are coming to light only now, as communication posts had been damaged in previous Boko Haram attacks.

Most of the victims, a total of 20, were killed in Warwara village, another six were murdered in Bura-Shika, and four died in Mangari, according to another witness.

The Nigeria-based Boko Haram terrorist group has killed more people than Islamic State (IS, previously ISIS/ISIL), claiming 6,644 lives compared to 6,073 killed by IS, revealed the Global Terrorism Index recently published by the Institute for Economic and Peace (IEP). The Nigerian jihadists pledged allegiance to IS in March 2015.

This latest attack comes as Boko Haram fighters have intensified their attacks on Buratai and nearby settlements. Attackers usually come into a village, raid it, and burn it down.

Locals told AFP that they see the attacks as retaliation for the army chief’s ongoing fight against Boko Haram militants.

The radical terror group’s six-year insurgency, which aims to create an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria, has left more 17,000 people dead.

Last week Boko Haram brutally killed 14 people in the village of Kamuya, which is the hometown of the mother of Nigeria’s army chief. - RT.

NEW WORLD DISORDER: Terrorism, False Flag Distractions, Societal Collapse And Civilizations Unraveling Ahead Of The Black Celestial Event - U.S. State Department Issues Worldwide Travel Alert For Americans; Warning Comes Amid Increased Terror Threats!

The United States issued a worldwide travel alert on Monday warning American citizens of "increased terrorist threats" in the wake of the Paris attacks.

PHOTO: REUTERS

November 24, 2015 - UNITED STATES - The US has issued a worldwide travel alert for its citizens in response to "increased terrorist threats".

The state department said "current information" suggested the Islamic State [IS] group, al-Qaeda, Boko Haram and others continued "to plan terrorist attacks in multiple regions".

The alert, it said, will remain in place until 24 February 2016.

France, Russia, Mali and several other countries have seen deadly attacks in the past month.

A US state department representative told BBC News there was "currently... no reason to believe that US citizens would be specifically targeted".

Meanwhile Belgium announced the capital Brussels would stay at the highest level of alert for another week over fears of militant attacks like those that killed 130 people in Paris on 13 November.

The alert comes as Belgian authorities say the capital Brussels will stay on its highest terror alert level for another week

PHOTO: REUTERS

In other developments

• An apparent explosives belt was found in a bin in the Paris suburb of Montrouge, which a fugitive suspect is believed to have passed through on the night of the Paris attacks
• France carried out its first air strikes against IS from its Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier, newly deployed in the eastern Mediterranean, reportedly hitting targets in Iraq and Syria, including the IS stronghold of Raqqa

The travel alert advises US citizens to "exercise vigilance when in public places or using transportation".

They are also advised to "be aware of immediate surroundings and avoid large crowds or crowded places".

"Authorities believe the likelihood of terror attacks will continue as members of ISIL/Da'esh [IS] return from Syria and Iraq," the state department said.

A US worldwide travel alert is unusual but not rare.

Similar advice, which applies everywhere bar the US itself, was issued twice in 2011 - following the death of Osama Bin Laden and on the tenth anniversary of the 11 September attacks. There was a further warning in August 2013.

Security is tight in New York ahead of Thanksgiving

PHOTO: REUTERS

The most recent worldwide alert came last Christmas in response to an attack in Sydney, Australia, flagging the risk of "lone wolf" attacks, a warning repeated this time using the less colourful phrase "unaffiliated persons".

Such broad warnings have been criticised in the past, both for being so vague as to be of little practical use and for doing the terrorists' job for them by creating a climate of fear in which governments may introduce repressive policies.

But with millions of Americans travelling this week to celebrate Thursday's Thanksgiving holiday, US officials insist the action is a sensible reminder of the global terrorist threat. - BBC.

 

SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Massive Bomb Blast In Yola, Nigeria - 32 People Killed, 80 Others Wounded!

Security personnel rush towards the site of a car bomb explosion near a stadium in the northeastern Nigerian city of Gombe.© Afolabi Sotunde / Reuters

November 18, 2015 - NIGERIA - At least 32 people were killed and 80 wounded after an explosive device went off at a market in the northeastern Nigerian city of Yola, humanitarian agencies say.

“Thirty-two people were killed and 80 have been injured,” Reuters quoted a Red Cross official as saying., Another official from the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Alhaji Sa'ad Bello, later confirmed the same numbers of casualties.

It is still unclear who is responsible for the blast, but the armed group Boko Haram has carried out attacks on Yola in the past, including suicide bomber attacks and other bombings.

The blast was reported at around 8 pm local time.

“The explosion happened in the midst of a large crowd because the area houses a livestock market, an open-air eatery and a mosque,” AFP quoted Red Cross official Aliyu Maikano as saying. “Our main preoccupation now is to save the injured.”

ISIS-affiliated Boko Haram claims responsibility for Nigeria’s deadly suicide bombings http://on.rt.com/6t39 
Twitter: RT

241 women & children freed from ‘terrorist camp,’ 43 potential #BokoHaram militants arrested http://on.rt.com/6s3m 
Twitter: RT

3 'underage girl' suicide bombers kill 13 during Eid celebrations in Nigeria http://www.rt.com/news/line/ 
Twitter: RT

One witness described the horrific aftermath of the scene: “The ground near my shop was covered with dead bodies. I helped to load 32 dead bodies into five vehicles,” witness Alhaji Ahmed told Reuters.

Another local said there were up to eight ambulances on the scene attending to the victims.

The suspected perpetrators, Boko Haram, have pledged allegiance to Islamic State and killed thousands of people in the northeastern part of the country during the last six years. The militant group is fighting for a state that would strictly adhere to Sharia law.

The last time Boko Haram militants attacked northeastern Nigeria was in late October, when separate explosions in Yola and Maiduguri killed at least 37 people. Fighters from the group have been targeting public places, such as places of worship, local markets, and bus stations.

In the past, the extremist group has claimed responsibility for attacks in neighboring Chad, Niger and Cameroon.Boko Haram began its insurgency in 2009, and since then has killed at least 17,000 people and left another 2.5 million homeless. - RT.

 

SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Nearly 60 Dead, Over 130 Wounded In Several Blasts In Northeast Nigeria - Boko Haram Pledges Allegiance To Islamic State Group!

March 9, 2015 - NIGERIA - More than 50 people have been killed and over 130 wounded in as many as five bombings in the northeastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri. No group has yet claimed responsibility, but suspicion falls on Boko Haram as they have previously targeted the area.

“We’ve received 50 dead bodies from the blast scenes and 36 injured people,” Salisu Kwaya Bura, Chief Medical Officer of Borno Specialists Hospital, told reporters as cited Reuters. “The state government has directed the treatment for the injured persons to be free.”

However, no exact figures for the number of people killed and injured have so far been confirmed.

According to the latest updates from police, a total of 58 people died and about 139, including many children, sustained injuries, AP reported. At the same time, other sources have put the death toll at 54 and a number of wounded at 143.

It has been also reported that there was a string of bombings across the city. Up to five explosions targeted different areas of Maiduguri, the largest city in northeastern Nigeria, one after another.

The first explosions rocked Baga fish market, located near a crowded market named "Monday Market" which has evolved into a daily market, around midday. The Baga bombing appears to have been the deadliest of the five attacks; 36 deaths were reported there.

“The bomb was devastating because it occurred in a crowded area,” Jamuna Jarmi, a grocery seller, told the local Vanguard News.

Witnesses claimed it was carried out by a female suicide bomber who arrived in a motor rickshaw.

The terrorist attack was followed by another suicide bombing, also near the Monday Market, just an hour later. The witnesses reported a bomb exploded near Post Office shopping area causing numerous casualties.
Shortly afterwards, the Monday Market itself was also was targeted by female suicide bombers, who detonated bombs killing dozens of people around them.

According a trader, who spoke to the BBC, one of the bombers had a bomb strapped to her body, while another one was carrying a bag containing an explosive.

The fourth attack hit in the busy Borno Express bus terminal. A witness managed to count about 12 lying bodies but was unsure if they were dead or injured.

According to Danlami Ajaokuta, a vigilante leader, the security forces ordered the closure of all shops in the city, fearing more attacks could follow.

The main gate to the Monday Market is closed on March 7, 2015 after a blast in Maiduguri. (AFP Photo / Ptunji Omirin)

The latest attack took place at a checkpoint in about 80 km from Maiduguri. Three people were wounded as a bomb hidden in a car exploded.

No militant organization has taken responsibility for the attacks, but Boko Haram is primarily under suspicion as the group sees Maiduguri as its strategic goal. Another distinctive feature that points towards Boko Haram is female suicide bombers, who are widely used by its terrorists.

Boko Haram, which wants to establish an Islamist caliphate based on Sharia law in northern Nigeria, controls vast areas that make up a territory approximately the size of Slovakia.

The militants reportedly plan to proclaim Maiduguri their capital in case they seize the city.

The terrorist organization last tried to take the city in December 2013. They managed to seize a local air force base which led to clashes with regular troops. - RT.

Boko Haram leader pledges allegiance to Islamic State group

This screen grab image taken on February 18, 2015 from a video made available by Islamist group Boko Haram shows their leader
Abubakar Shekau making a statement at an undisclosed location (AFP Photo/)

The leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram militants, Abubakar Shekau, pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (IS) group in an audio recording released Saturday.

"We announce our allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims, Ibrahim ibn Awad ibn Ibrahim al-Husseini al-Qurashi," said the voice on the message, which was believed to be that of Shekau and was released through Boko Haram's Twitter account.

Qurashi is better known as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of the IS group which has proclaimed a caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq.

Shekau spoke in Arabic, but the message contained French and English subtitles.

It was not immediately possible to verify the authenticity of the message.

Shekau was not pictured, a contrast from most of Boko Haram's past messages in which the Islamist leader has been shown, often in close up shots.

But Shekau did identify himself in the recording, which was accompanied by the subtitles and a graphic including an image of a radio microphone.

There have in recent months been signs of closer ties between the Nigerian militants and the IS group, with both using similar ways of communicating with the outside world. Boko Haram has notably begun releasing videos that resemble those made by IS.

Boko Haram has been waging a six-year uprising against the Nigerian state, which has claimed more than 13,000 lives.

Analysts have long debated the extent of Boko Haram's ties to other jihadist groups, but the evidence was never clear. - Yahoo.

SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Boko Haram Attacks, Burns Nigeria Village In Latest Massacre - "68 People Killed, Children Among Them"!

The leader of the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau (C) delivering a speech.(AFP Photo / Boko Haram)

March 5, 2015 - NIGERIA - At least 68 people have been killed by Boko Haram militants in north-eastern Nigeria close to Maiduguri, the capital of the Borno state, witnesses said. Many kids are reported to be among those killed, as a village was stormed and then put on fire.

The gunmen attacked the village Njaba in Dambua area, about 100 km from Maiduguri, early on Tuesday at the time of the morning prayer. The incident was reported much later due to the remoteness of the location.

Witnesses, who managed to escape from the village, said the militants targeted mainly men.

“There was pandemonium everywhere,” Fatima Abakar said told The Sahara Reporters.

“I ran into the bush. Since then I [have] never seen my husband and three children. [I] came back to our village in the afternoon, dead bodies was scattered everywhere.""

In the course of the massacre the gunmen blew up houses with petrol bombs, setting the village ablaze before leaving.

“They burnt many houses. Many people fled the villages into the bush," Kurri Bulama, local resident, said.

The survivors who returned to the village after the attack said the dead bodies were lying everywhere in the area unattended.

“I participated in the counting of dead bodies. Sixty-eight people were killed,” Muminu Haruna, a witness, told AFP after escaping the attack on Tuesday in Njaba.

The witnesses said there were no military present in the village since Monday.

Boko Haram is trying to create an Islamic state in the northeast of Nigeria and has killed thousands and kidnapped hundreds in the process. It has also threatened Nigeria’s neighbors: Chad, Cameroon and Niger.

Some 1.6 million Nigerians have been displaced, and thousands have been killed as a result of the militants’ deadly attacks. In January the group massacred more than 2,000 people in the northeastern town of Baga.

The area of Maiduguri is seen as a key strategic goal for Boko Haram, which wants to carve out an Islamist state in northern Nigeria. The terrorist organization last tried to take the city in December 2013. They managed to seize a local air force base which led to clashes with regular troops. - RT.

SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Human Devolution - Satellite Images Reveal "HORRIFIC" Scale Of Boko Haram Attacks In Nigeria!

Satellite image showing the extent of damage in Doron Baga taken on 7 Jan 2015, following an attack by Boko Haram. (DigitalGlobe)

January 15, 2015 - NIGERIA - The scale of last week’s attack on the Nigerian towns of Baga and Doron Baga by Boko Haram militants has been shown graphically in before-and-after satellite images revealed by Amnesty International on Thursday.

Satellite images, taken on January 2 and January 7, respectively, show the change to two densely populated towns, 2.5 kilometers from each other, where more than 3,700 buildings were damaged or completely destroyed by fire, Amnesty International reported.

Image by DigitalGlobe

Baga and Doron Baga, some 160 kilometers from Maiduguri, the largest city in northeast Nigeria, as well as at least 16 neighboring villages and other towns, were devastated by a series of attacks of Boko Haram militants that began January 3, local officials said.

“These detailed images show devastation of catastrophic proportions in two towns, one of which was almost wiped off the map in the space of four days,” said Daniel Eyre, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International.

“Of all Boko Haram assaults analyzed by Amnesty International, this is the largest and most destructive yet. It represents a deliberate attack on civilians whose homes, clinics and schools are now burnt out ruins.”

Dispatches: What Really Happened in #Baga, Nigeria? http://bit.ly/14XzDBP  New satellite imagery analysis

"This week, Nigeria’s Director of Defense Information stated that the number of people killed in Baga including Boko Haram fighters “has so far not exceeded about 150”. These images, together with eyewitness accounts from those who survived the attack, suggest that the final death toll could be much higher than this figure,” Amnesty International’s Eyre said.

Thousands of people have fled the violence across the border to Chad and to other parts of Nigeria, according to the human rights watchdog. Analysis of satellite images suggests that this time desperate residents used wooden fishing boats to flee across Lake Chad.

“They killed so many people. I saw maybe around 100 killed at that time in Baga. I ran to the bush. As we were running, they were shooting and killing,” a male Baga resident told Amnesty.

An image grab made on October 31, 2014 from a video obtained by AFP shows the leader of the Islamist extremist group
Boko Haram Abubakar Shekau (C) delivering a speech. (AFP Photo/Boko Haram)

A woman added: "I don't know how many but there were bodies everywhere we looked."

The area around the towns is still in rebel control, so for now it is impossible to estimate how many people have been killed.

Boko Haram militants are currently in control of an area of about 52,000 square kilometers – approximately the size of Costa Rica or Slovakia. - RT.

SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: "2,000 Killed In Nigeria" - Boko Haram's Latest Attack Is The Deadliest In History, Amnesty International Says!

Boko Haram fighters parading on a tank in an unidentified town.(AFP Photo / HO)

January 10, 2015 - NIGERIA - Boko Haram, the extremist Islamic group that wants to enforce Sharia Law across Nigeria, has inflicted mass casualties in northeast Nigeria. Some reports put the number of fatalities as high as 2,000.

Amnesty International, communicating with experts on the ground in Nigeria, has said the assault on the town of Baga could be the deadliest attack by Boko Haram since the extremist group surfaced in 2009.

“The attack on Baga and surrounding towns looks as if it could be Boko Haram’s deadliest act in a catalogue of increasingly heinous attacks carried out by the group,” said Daniel Eyre, Nigeria researcher for Amnesty International.

Amnesty International has quoted some sources that say the town has been razed, with as many as 2,000 people killed. If true, that would mark a “disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram’s ongoing onslaught against the civilian population,” Eyre added.

Yanaye Grema, a 38-year-old fisherman, was part of a citizen’s militia to defend the town but the extremist Islamic group overpowered them.

“People fled into the bush while some shut themselves indoors,” Grema told AFP from the Borno state capital, Maiduguri. "The gunmen pursued fleeing residents into the bush, shooting them dead.”

It wasn’t until Tuesday night that he discovered the scale of the attack.

“For five kilometres (three miles), I kept stepping on dead bodies until I reached Malam Karanti village, which was also deserted and burnt,” he said.

Children walking outside a charrred house in the remote northeast town of Baga, Borno State, after two days of clashes between officers
of the Joint Task Force and members of the Islamist sect Boko Haram.(AFP Photo / STR)

Mike Omeri, Nigerian government spokesman, said the military on Friday was battling the insurgents around Baga, where the fundamentalist Islamic group seized a major military base last week.

"Security forces have responded rapidly, and have deployed significant military assets and conducted airstrikes against militant targets," Omeri said in a statement, as quoted by AP.

Although officials are still in the process of securing the town and attending to the wounded, early accounts indicate most of the victims were the elderly and children, who were unable to escape the town after the assault began.

"The human carnage perpetrated by Boko Haram terrorists in Baga was enormous," Muhammad Abba Gava, a spokesman for poorly armed civilians in a defense group that fights Boko Haram, told The Associated Press.

"No one could attend to the corpses and even the seriously injured ones who may have died by now," Gava said.

According to the Washington-based Council on Foreign Relations, the 5-year insurgency claimed the lives of more than 10,000 people in 2014 alone. The violence has displaced more than a million Nigerians, while hundreds of thousands have escaped into neighboring Chad and Cameroon. - RT.

SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Triple Bomb Blasts Nigeria Mosque - Kills 120 People, 260 Other Worshippers Injured!

Police officers stand near wreckage at a scene of multiple bombings at Kano Central Mosque November 28, 2014. (Reuters)

November 30, 2014 - NIGERIA - Nigeria suffered one of its bloodiest terrorist attacks on Friday when three bombs exploded outside the Central Mosque in the northern city of Kano, killing at least 120 people.

The assault was timed to coincide with Friday prayers and the blasts injured another 260 worshippers.

No group has claimed responsibility, but the incident bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, a radical Islamist movement linked to al-Qaeda which has killed thousands of people in northern Nigeria and forced over a million to flee their homes.

The Emir of Kano, Mohammad Sanusi II, often attends prayers at the Central Mosque. An outspoken opponent of Boko Haram, he may have been an intended target. However, the Emir was believed to be in Saudi Arabia on Friday.

Three bombs detonated outside the Central Mosque in the heart of Kano as worshippers gathered. Eyewitnesses said that two devices exploded in the courtyard, while a third went off some distance away.

As the blasts tore through the crowd, gunmen opened fire with automatic weapons. "These people have bombed the mosque. I am face to face with people screaming," Chijjani Usman, one of the worshippers, told Reuters news agency.

Bomb detection security personnel inspect the wreckage of a car believed to be used in the bombing Photo: REUTERS

Another eyewitness, Aminu Abdullahi, said: “Two bombs exploded, one after the other, in the premises of the Grand Mosque seconds after the prayers had started.”

Mr Abdullahi told Agence France Press news agency: "A third one went off in a nearby road. The blasts were followed by gunshots by the police to scare off potential attacks."

Officials later said that over 92 bodies had been recovered from the scene.

With almost ten million people, Kano is the biggest city in northern Nigeria and the sixth largest in the Muslim world. This assault on the mosque was the most serious incident in Kano since January 2012, when Boko Haram killed over 200 people during simultaneous attacks on police stations and government offices across the city.

Mr Sanusi became Emir in June after being sacked as governor of Nigeria’s Central Bank. He was removed from that post for daring to expose corrupt transactions by the state oil company.

The Emir of Kano, Muhammed Sanusi II, leads evening prayers at Kano Central Mosque after inspecting the damage (REUTERS)

Unlike some Muslim leaders in northern Nigeria, he is an outspoken critic of Boko Haram. Earlier this month, Mr Sanusi said: “These people, when they attack towns, they kill boys and enslave girls. People must stand resolute.” He urged citizens of Kano to “acquire what they can to defend themselves” and “not wait for soldiers to protect them”.

Nigeria’s corrupt and ineffective army has proved itself incapable of dealing with Boko Haram. Britain is considering whether to send dozens of military trainers to assist the country’s hapless security forces.

But Kano’s heritage as a centre of commerce and Muslim scholarship – along with the city’s sheer size – once drew a succession of foreign dignitaries. As Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher visited Kano in 1988.

The Queen toured the city in 1956 and paid a visit to the Central Mosque, which was the target of Friday's attack. On that occasion, she was welcomed by Emir Mohammad I, the grandfather of Mr Sanusi. - Telegraph.

SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Suicide Bomb Rocks Nigeria - Kills 48 High School Students, 79 Others Wounded!

People are treated at the General hospital in Potiskum, Nigeria, Monday, Nov. 10, 2014, following a suicide bomb attack at Government Science Technical College Potiskum. AP Photo/Adamu Adamu

November 11, 2014 - POTISKUM, NIGERIA - Disguised in a school uniform, a suicide bomber set off explosives hidden in a backpack during an assembly Monday at a high school in northern Nigeria, killing at least 48 students and wounding 79 others.

It was the latest attack by suspected Boko Haram militants who kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls earlier this year.

Soldiers rushed to the grisly scene, spattered with body parts, but were chased away by a stone-throwing crowd angry at the military’s inability to halt a 5-year-old Islamic insurgency that has targeted schools and killed thousands.

The Islamic militants – whose name means “Western education is sinful” in the local Hausa language – have intensified the tempo and deadliness of attacks since the government announced last month that the group had agreed to a cease-fire and that the schoolgirls would be released imminently. Boko Haram’s leader has denied any cease-fire deal and the girls have not been set free.

Monday’s bombing came one week after a suicide attack in Potiskum, the capital of Yobe state, killed 30 people taking part in a religious procession by moderate Muslims.

Some 2,000 students had gathered for a weekly assembly at the Government Technical Science College when the explosion ripped through the school hall, survivors said.

“We were waiting for the principal to address us, around 7:30 a.m., when we heard a deafening sound and I was blown off my feet. People started screaming and running. I saw blood all over my body,” 17-year-old student Musa Ibrahim Yahaya said from his hospital bed, where he was being treated for head wounds.

Survivors said the bomber hid the explosives in a type of backpack popular with students. Months ago Nigeria’s military reported finding a bomb factory where explosives were being sewn into backpacks in the northern city of Kano.

Hospital records showed 48 bodies and many body parts were brought to the morgue. Seventy-nine students were admitted, many with serious injuries that may require amputations, health workers said. The hospital was so overcrowded that some patients were crammed two to a bed.

The victims all appeared to be between the ages of 11 and 20, a morgue attendant said.

The U.S. strongly condemned the attack.

“Our sympathies and thoughts are with the victims and their families of these latest egregious assaults on innocent civilians by those bent on fomenting violence, extremism and insecurity in northeastern Nigeria and the region,” U.S. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters in Washington.

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the suicide bombing and expressed outrage at “the frequency and brutality of attacks against educational institutions in the north,” U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said.

“These repeated and relentless attacks on children and schools are attacks on the future of Nigeria, a country that already has the largest number of children out of school in the world,” UNICEF said.

Ban demanded an immediate halt to “these abominable crimes” and called for the perpetrators to be swiftly brought to justice and adequate security measures to protect civilians, Haq said.

The Yobe state government ordered the immediate closure of all government schools in the area.

Potiskum was once the home of one of Africa’s biggest cattle markets and a booming grain market that attracted traders from neighbouring countries before a state of emergency was declared in May 2013 in Yobe and two other northern Nigerian states, where Boko Haram has attacked schools and villages and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes in its fight to impose an Islamic state.

Gov. Ibrahim Gaidam said he was heartbroken by the loss of life during Monday’s attack, and denounced the failure of emergency rule. “Instead of forcing insurgents and criminals to flee, the insurgents are forcing innocent people to flee and making life miserable,” he said.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan owes an urgent explanation to people living under a state of emergency while attacks increase, the governor said.

Garba Alhaji, the father of one of the wounded students, said the high school did not have proper security. “I strongly blame the Yobe state government for not fencing the school,” he said, adding that just three months ago a bomb was discovered in the school and removed by an anti-bomb squad.

The government of Jonathan, who is running for re-election in February, has promised more security for schools.

Boko Haram attracted international outrage with the April kidnapping of 276 mostly Christian schoolgirls as they were taking exams at a boarding school in northern Nigeria. Dozens of the girls managed to escape, but 219 remain missing. Boko Haram has said that the girls have all converted to Islam and been married off to extremist fighters.

Many Nigerians are angry that Boko Haram has increased attacks and bombings since Oct. 17, when the government claimed to have brokered a cease-fire. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has denied negotiating a truce. - Global News.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Over 40 Killed In Attack On Soccer Stadium In Nigeria - Officials Blame Islamist Militants Boko Haram!

June 02, 2014 - NIGERIA - A bomb attack targeting fans at a soccer match in Nigeria's restive northeast killed at least 40 people on Sunday, a police officer told AFP.

Bomb attack targeting fans at a soccer match in Nigeria's restive northeast kills at least 40 people.
Car bomb (illustration) - Thinkstock

"There has been a bomb explosion at a football field this evening and so far more than 40 people have been killed," the officer told the news agency.

The policeman's account was confirmed by a nurse at the Mubi General Hospital.

Mubi is located in Adamawa state, one of three in the northeast which has been under a state of emergency for more than a year as the military has tried to crush the terrorist group Boko Haram's five-year extremist uprising.

The area has been hit by far fewer Boko Haram attacks than other parts of the northeast, but the town was the site of a gruesome October 2012 massacre at a post-secondary technical college.

Scores of students were killed in their dorms, including many whose throats were slit.

The policeman said the bomb exploded at roughly 6:30 p.m. local time and targeted fans who were trying to leave the field after watching a local club match.

It was not immediately clear if players were among the casualties, but the officer and the nurse said it appeared most of the victims were fans.

Boko Haram has carried out scores of attacks on targets it says are a product of Western influence, including sports venues and schools teaching a secular curriculum.

The conflict has received unprecedented global attention over the last six weeks following the Islamists' mass kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls.

The girls were seized on April 14 from Chibok in Borno state, which shares a border with Adamawa.

Concerns over the fate of the girls were heightened after Boko Haram's leader threatened to sell them as slaves. The Al-Qaeda-linked group has publicized a video showing some of the kidnapped girls, claiming they had converted to Islam.

Nigeria's highest ranking military officer said last week the country knew the girls’ location, but did not divulge further details. - INN.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: Twin Explosions In The City Of Jos, Nigeria - 118 People Killed; Dozens Injured!

May 20, 2014 - NIGERIA - At least 118 people were killed in the central Nigerian city of Jos on Tuesday after two bombs ripped through a business district packed with commuters and traders.

No immediate claim of responsibility for twin city centre blasts, which bear hallmarks of Boko Haram

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the explosions, but the bombs bore the hallmarks of other attacks by Islamist sect Boko Haram, which has recently stepped up a bloody five-year battle campaign to establish a caliphate in northern Nigeria, and kidnapped more than 300 schoolgirls from a remote north-eastern school in April. In the past month, the group has set off two bomb blasts in the capital, Abuja, and another in the country's second city, Kano.

Abdulsalam Mohd, of Nigeria's national emergency management agency, said ambulances and volunteers were ferrying wounded and dead from Terminus, an area home to a teaching hospital, shops, offices and a market. He said the death toll was likely to climb as victims were still being pulled from smouldering rubble at the scene.


WATCH: Moment of deadly Nigeria explosion caught on tape.

"It happened very close to the market so most of the victims were people plying their trade. Some had children with them," he said by phone from the scene, above the wail of sirens.

"The casualty figure is likely to rise because the fire service wasn't able to clear all the rubble today. They will continue to remove the debris tomorrow and we are expecting to recover more bodies then," he added.

That could push the death toll close to Boko Haram's single biggest atrocity yet, a multiple-bomb attack in Kano which killed 170 in January 2012 . The attack suggests that the group, which started with hit-and-run home-made explosives thrown from motorbikes, is seeking to make a show of its capabilities before the elections scheduled in 2015.

Witnesses said soldiers had erected checkpoints around the area, and firefighters were still battling to put out flames that continued to rage almost two hours after the blasts.

The wreckage of a burnt vehicle and burning shops following a bomb blast at Terminus market
in the central Nigerian city of Jos. Photograph: Str/AFP/Getty Images

Far from Boko Haram's northern strongholds, Jos has been relatively free of attacks by the sect. The group hasn't struck there since it attempted to ignite sectarian tensions with a series of church bombs on Christmas Day 2011. Jos is at the heart of the Nigeria's volatile Middle Belt, where clashes over power and resources have often been cloaked in the guise of religious violence.

Religious leaders appealed for calm in the city, which is home to both Muslims and Christians. "A lot of youths risked their lives to go in and rescue people, some of them were people burning in their own homes. No one was asking if they were Muslim or Christians," said Kola, an eyewitness, who gave only his first name.

But there were glimmers of how frustration and anger at rising insecurity could take on a sectarian character. A group of Christian youths in one neighbourhood set up checkpoints, where they carried out stop-and-searches on vehicles. In another neighbourhood, Christian youths armed with clubs marched towards a Muslim neighbourhood before they were stopped by policemen. "They were very angry, and innocent people would have been their victims," said Ahmed Sittu, who escaped the crowd by ducking behind a wall.

At least one of the bombs appeared to have come from a car packed with explosives, which witnesses say tore a hole in the ground and caused surrounding vehicles to catch fire. Traders continued to crowd around the scene after the blast, trying to recover charred belongings. Bala Mohammed, a resident who was returning home from his office nearby, said the force of the first explosion threw him to the ground. "People started running to help the wounded, and 10 minutes later the second one went off. It took off the roof of the market building. Many were trapped inside, it was a terrible scene."


WATCH:  Explosions kill at least 118 in Nigeria.

Stung by recent criticism over sluggish responses to attacks, the government was quick to condemn the bombings. "President [Goodluck] Jonathan assures all Nigerians that government remains fully committed to winning the war against terror, and this administration will not be cowed by the atrocities of enemies of human progress and civilisation," a statement released from his office said.

More than 1,500 people died in attacks by Boko Haram in the first three months of this year after the group stepped up its campaign. At least 105 were then killed in twin bomb blasts in Abuja last month, while a suicide car bomber killed five people in Kano on Sunday evening.

Britain, the US and France have pledged to help rescue the schoolgirls snatched from north-eastern Borno state, marking a potential military escalation in a region already under a state of emergency. - Guardian.

INFRASTRUCTURE & SOCIETAL COLLAPSE: 2 Massive Blasts Tore Through Nigerian Bus Station - 71 People Killed, 124 Wounded; 40 Vehicles Destroyed! [PHOTOS]

April 14, 2014 - NIGERIA - Seventy-one people have been killed and a further 124 injured in two blasts that tore through a bus station on the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, police officials said.

Bomb experts search for evidences in front of buses at a bomb blast scene at Nyanyan in Abuja April 14, 2014.
(Reuters / Afolabi Sotunde)

The explosions took place as several hundred commuters were boarding buses to Abuja. Police spokesman Frank Mba told AP that 16 luxury coaches and 24 minibuses were destroyed.

Police say they believe that secondary explosions were triggered by the first one.

"There was only believed to be one blast with secondary explosions as vehicle fuel tanks ignited and burned," Mba said.

“I was waiting to get on a bus when I heard a deafening explosion then smoke,” eyewitness Mimi Daniels who works in the capital, told Reuters. “People were running around in panic.”

People help a victim of a bomb blast into the emergency ward of the Asokoro General Hospital in Abuja April 14, 2014.
(Reuters / Afolabi Sotunde)

Police officers gather the belongings of victims at the scene of a bomb explosion at Nyanyan, in Abuja April 14, 2014.
(Reuters / Afolabi Sotunde)

While there were initially thought to have been multiple explosions, subsequent blasts were found to have been “secondary” as fuel tanks in the vehicles ignited.

Dead bodies were scattered around the scene of the attack, and ambulances arrived in the area to take the dead and injured to hospitals.

“Rescue teams are already on ground. There were so many people there at that time, so we think there must have been some injuries,” Manzo Ezekiel of the National Emergency Management Agency told AFP shortly after the blast before details of the death toll were confirmed.

Bomb experts gather evidence at the scene of a bomb blast at Nyanyan in Abuja April 14, 2014.
(Reuters / Afolabi Sotunde)

Burnt and damaged vehicles are seen at the scene of the bomb blast explosion at Nyanyan, Abuja April 14, 2014.
(Reuters / Afolabi Sotunde)

Local correspondents have suggested that Islamist militant group Boho Haram may have been responsible for the attack.

At least 1,500 people have been killed by Boko Haram in north-east Nigeria this year, according to Amnesty International. The group have targets schools and military installations. In 2011, the group hit the UN building in Abuja.


Boko Haram had been threatening to carry out an attack on the capital. They are suspected of being behind the most recent terrorist attack in Nigeria, in the northeast of the country, which resulted in some 60 deaths.

On Sunday, armed militants besieged Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State, near the border with Cameroon.

“The attackers, who are no doubt Boko Haram insurgents, attacked Amchaka and nearby villages this morning, hurling IEDs [improvised explosive devices] into homes and setting them on fire,” local government administrator Baba Shehu Gulumba told AFP.

“They then went on a shooting spree, opening fire on confused residents as they tried to flee, killing 60 people and injuring several others,” he said. - RT.