Nigeria’s Ministry of Defence said more than 100
Islamist militants were killed in raids on two
camps following a bomb attack that claimed the
lives of 21 people at a shopping center in Abuja,
the capital.
Security forces raided a camp near the Niger
border and another in the northeastern state of
Borno, killing 50 militants in each location, the
ministry said in an e-mailed statement late
yesterday. Two members of the Multinational
Joint Task Force, which includes troops from
Nigeria and neighboring Niger and Chad, were
killed, it said.
The June 25 blast in Abuja injured 52 people,
the National Emergency Management Agency
said. It was the third bombing this year in the
capital of Africa’s biggest oil producer. While no
group has claimed responsibility, the Islamist
group Boko Haram killed at least 75 people in an
explosion in an Abuja suburb on April 14. The
same day the militants kidnapped more than 200
schoolgirls in Borno state.
“The recent attacks, together with the
kidnapping of over 200 schoolgirls, have raised
Boko Haram for ordinary Nigerians from a
distant, contained threat to something more
tangible, politically relevant and potentially
threatening,” Philippe de Pontet, Africa director
at New York-based Eurasia Group, said in e-
mailed comments yesterday.
Suspect Shot
The Ministry of Defence said yesterday that
more explosives were found in a bag dropped by
one of the attackers, who was shot dead while
fleeing. The bombing occurred in Abuja’s Wuse 2
district, popular with wealthy Nigerians and
foreigners.
A week before the bombing, government
spokesman Mike Omeri said intelligence reports
indicated militants planned to hijack gasoline
trucks and use them to carry improvised
explosives to the capital.
Boko Haram, which means “western education is
a sin” in the Hausa language, has focused its
five-year insurgency on the north and the
capital, hundreds of miles from the coastal oil
and gas fields and the southern commercial
capital, Lagos. Nigeria attracted a record $21.3
billion in foreign direct investment last year,
according to the national statistics agency.
The militants drew international outrage when
they kidnapped the schoolgirls from the town of
Chibok in Borno state. Most of the girls are still
missing, and countries including the U.S. and U.K.
are aiding the search and rescue effort.
Election Campaign
Nigeria, a country of 170 million people with
Africa’s biggest economy, is roughly divided
between a mainly Muslim north and
predominately Christian south.
President Goodluck Jonathan has said Boko
Haram is part of al-Qaeda and poses a threat to
countries throughout the region. Jonathan cut
short his visit to Equatorial Guinea for an
African Union meeting to return to Abuja
yesterday, his spokesman Reuben Abati said in a
text message.
His administration has enforced emergency rule
in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa, the three states
where Boko Haram is most active, since May
2013.
Jonathan hasn’t said if he will seek re-election in
February.
“The Jonathan administration will scale up
security spending to counter Boko Haram, and
spread military patronage,” said Eurasia’s de
Pontet. “National security is now the dominant
campaign issue, with corruption and power now
secondary matters.”