New wave of Boko Haram killings a challenge to President Buhari

Islamist militants, Boko Haram, are believed to be behind the killing of 44 people in attacks on a restaurant and on a Mosque in the central Nigerian city of Jos, emergency service authorities said on Monday. The attacks in Jos closely follow those of Potiskum, a city in northeastern Yobe state where a woman suicide bomber blew up in the midst of a crowded Evangelical Christian church service killing at least five people.

Earlier on Friday  the Nigerian military confirmed to AP that six women suicide bombers caused explosions that killed scores of people including a soldier at Zabamari Muna village outside Maiduguri, the biggest city in northeast Nigeria and the birthplace of Boko Haram. By weekend, the string of attacks blamed on Boko Haram insurgents had caused the death of more than 200 people within the space of one week.

Also Sunday, Boko Haram extremists returned to northeastern villages attacked three days earlier, killing nine villagers and burning down 32 churches and about 300 homes, said Stephen Apagu, chairman of a self-defense group in Borno state's Askira-Uba local government area. He said the militia killed three militants.

Although Boko Haram had not yet claimed responsibility for the Jos attacks, the carnage had all the hallmarks of Boko Haram.

Reuters news agency quoting Alhassan Muhammad of the National Emergency Management Agency said 23 people died in the suicide bombing at the Jos restaurant while 21 died in a shooting and grenade attack outside the Mosque. He said about 47 people had been injured.

Plateau State police spokesman Emmanuel Abuh had earlier confirmed reports of two attacks in Jos. Jos, the Plateau state capital located on the edge of the core insurgency zone in the northeast and been hit by major Boko Haram attacks before. "I saw people running out crying, some with bloodstains," said resident Bashir Abdullahi, describing the scene after he said a suicide bomber ran into the crowded restaurant. "I believe many lives were lost," he added.

The second attack targeted a Jos Mosque where a well-known cleric was preaching, witnesses said. Gunmen started shooting sporadically and then there was a loud blast, they said. "We saw two or three vehicles coming from different directions and we started hearing gunshots from all angles and then a very loud bang, like a bomb being thrown into the Mosque," said witness Abubakar Shehu.

Nigeria’s new President Muhammadu Buhari described the latest wave of killings as, “Inhuman and barbaric." 

Nevertheless the attacks do not bode well for Mr. Buhari who was voted into power by citizens who believed that he would do a better job at dealing with Boko Haram than his predecessor, Goodluck Jonathan. Under Jonathan’s four-year tenure more than 23,000 people died at the hands of Boko Haram.

(Source: Reuters and AP)

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