By Elisha Bala-Gbogbo and Ardo Hazzad


Suspected Islamist militants intensified their war in Nigeria with two bombings in the central city of Jos that raised the death toll in attacks on four major urban areas in the past six weeks to more than 200.

The twin explosions in the business district of Jos yesterday killed at least 118 people and wounded 65, National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Ezekiel Manzo said by phone from Abuja, the capital. The attack was the second bombing in three days, after five people were killed in a May 18 suicide bombing in the northern city of Kano.

While no group has claimed responsibility for the Jos attack, the militant group Boko Haram said it carried out bombings in Abuja on April 14 and May 1 that left more than 90 dead and kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls last month.

“The Abuja, Kano and Plateau bombings would appear to suggest that Boko Haram retains the capacity and intent to stage deadly strikes outside of its stronghold in the northeast despite the nearly yearlong sustained military operations in the region,” Drum Cussac, a Poole, U.K.-based risk consultancy, said in e-mailed comments today.

Nigerian security forces are struggling to battle Boko Haram, which is seeking to extend its violent campaign beyond its northeastern heartland. Countries including the U.S., U.K., France and Israel are helping the authorities with intelligence and reconnaissance to hunt for the schoolgirls.

Boko Haram, which means “western education is a sin” in the local Hausa language, says it’s fighting to impose Shariah, or Islamic law, in Africa’s top oil producer.
Government Criticism

The bombings will put the security record of President Goodluck Jonathan’s administration under “further scrutiny,” Drum Cussac said.

Jonathan, 56, has faced criticism at home and abroad for failing to react quickly to Boko Haram’s April 14 abduction. He waited almost three weeks before speaking publicly about the kidnapping of the schoolgirls in the northeastern town of Chibok in Borno state.

Jonathan condemned the Jos blasts and “directed all relevant agencies to mobilize support and relief efforts in aid of the victims,” the Nigerian presidency said in an e-mailed statement.

Jonathan has ordered the deployment of additional troops to reinforce military operations in the northeast, Mike Omeri, a government spokesman, told reporters yesterday in Abuja. He said the operations will incorporate “the input of allied countries and forces.”

Nigerian lawmakers have approved a six-month extension of a yearlong emergency rule in three northeastern states worst affected by the Islamist insurgency.

To contact the reporters on this story: Elisha Bala-Gbogbo in Abuja at ebalagbogbo@bloomberg.net; Ardo Hazzad in Bauchi at ahazzad@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net Karl Maier, Paul Richardson


Source: Bloomberg