Strife-torn Nigerian city hit by bomb attacks
At least two bombs detonated near beer halls in a rough neighbourhood of a central Nigerian city beset by religious and ethnic violence, causing unknown injuries, witnesses said.
The bombs exploded at about 9pm local time yesterday in an area of Jos known as West of Mines, a seedy neighbourhood filled with outdoor beer parlours, food stands and brothels, witnesses said.
After the explosions, panicked bystanders fled into the night, with cars racing away from the blast running down fleeing patrons, witness Peter Nwabuochi said.
Captain Charles Ekeocha, a spokesman for the military force tasked with keeping peace in the city, confirmed the bombs exploded.
Capt Ekeocha declined to offer injury figures, promising to give more details today.
Local police officials did not answer calls for comment late last night. State government spokesman Pam Ayuba could not be reached for comment.
Jos is the capital of Plateau state, which sits in Nigeria’s “middle belt”, where dozens of ethnic groups vie for power.
The city has been at the epicentre of religious and ethnic violence in the country, straddling the dividing line between Nigeria’s largely Christian south and Muslim north.
The Jos violence, though fractured across religious lines, often has more to do with local politics, economics and rights to grazing lands.
The government of Plateau state is controlled by Christian politicians who have blocked Muslims from being legally recognised as citizens.
That has locked many out of prized government jobs in a region where the tourism industry and tin mining have collapsed in the last decades.
At least 54 people have died in the last week alone in the pasturelands and hills surrounding Jos in a wave of continuing violence that security forces appear unable to stop.
Human Rights Watch says at least 1,000 people were killed in the area in 2010.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the blast. However, the targeting of informal beer parlours remains a hallmark of a radical Muslim sect from Nigeria’s north east known locally as Boko Haram.
Boko Haram, whose name means Western education is sacrilege in the local Hausa language, is responsible for a rash of killings targeting security officers, local leaders and clerics.
They claimed responsibility for a bomb that tore through the United Nations’ Abuja headquarters on August 26, killing 23 people and wounding 81.
The sect also has claimed responsibility for a bombing at the nation’s police headquarters in Abuja that killed two people in June.
The sect, which wants to implement a strict version of Shariah law in the nation, claimed responsibility for a series of bombings in Jos on December 25 that killed at least 32 people and wounded at least 74 others.
