Nigeria bombings: 'Death toll passes 100'...Boko Haram Suspected

No-one has yet said they carried out the attack 

The bodies of at least 118 people have now been recovered from the sites of twin bombings in the central Nigerian city of Jos, the nation's emergency management agency says. The first blast was in a busy market, the second outside a nearby hospital. No group has said it was behind the attack but Boko Haram militants have carried out a spate of recent bombings. Jos has also seen deadly clashes between Christian and Muslim groups in recent years.

A spokesperson for the regional governor told AFP news agency that most of the victims were women. The market and bus terminal are part of the commercial centre of Jos. The second blast was some 30 minutes after the first and killed some rescue workers. Nigerian journalist, Hassan Ibrahim said that tension was rising in the area, with youths blocking some roads. Religious leaders are appealing for calm.
National Emergency Management Agency coordinator Mohammed Abdulsalam said: "We've now recovered 118 bodies from the rubble. This could rise by morning, as there is still some rubble we haven't shifted." He said 56 people were injured.
Once again the explosions were meant to cause as many casualties as possible. Like the recent Abuja blasts, the victims are of different religions and were mainly people out in the streets trying to earn a living.
It has been almost two years since the last attack on Jos - when several churches were bombed. Those attacks were seen as an effort by Boko Haram to spark clashes between Christians and Muslims in the often volatile Middle Belt region of Nigeria.

For more than 10 years this area has been the scene of violent clashes that have often been portrayed as religious conflicts even though they are rooted in competition over land, power and resources. There is, however, a risk that these latest bombings will spark reprisal clashes and religious leaders have appealed for calm.
Witnesses at a hospital in Jos saw bodies being brought in that were burned beyond recognition.

A student in Jos said "The second blast was close to me. I tried to get to my car. I was asking for help. I saw a lot of dead people. After the blast people could not stop panicking. People were driving in all directions."

The world is watching to see what President Jonathan will do next

President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the attack as a "tragic assault on human freedom".

"President Jonathan assures all Nigerians that the government remains fully committed to winning the war against terror and... will not be cowed by the atrocities of enemies of human progress and civilization," his office stated.

Although Boko Haram has previously targeted Jos, the capital of Plateau state, the city has been relatively calm for almost two years.

 
The market was said to have been very busy - with many women among the victims 

Shopkeepers salvage belongings after the attack

 

There are fears the death toll could still rise

 

Plateau state lies on the fault-line which divides Nigeria's largely Muslim north from its mainly Christian south.The state has witnessed violence blamed on land disputes between semi-nomadic Muslim Fulani herdsmen and mainly Christian Berom farmers.

The Nigerian government is also currently trying to trace school girls captured by Boko Haram in April from a boarding school in the north-eastern town of Chibok. Several countries are helping in the search with no success so far. The search for the nearly 300 teenage girls abducted in Nigeria three weeks ago could soon enter a new phase with the addition of a team of American “coordinators” on the ground, but former U.S. diplomatic and law enforcement officials say that with so much time passed, and in such vast and hostile terrain, the task before them is daunting.

While neither Nigerian nor American officials know where the girls are now, they were believed to be taken to the stronghold of the terror group Boko Haram in the northeast of the African nation, perhaps into the Sambisa Forest.

John Campbell, former U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria, said Wednesday that Boko Haram is able to operate “with a fair degree of impunity in perhaps a quarter or a third of the land area of Nigeria.” It's like trying to find a needle in a haystack...or rather...a needle in a jungle.

 

The case shocked the world and prompted foreign powers to send military advisers to assist Nigeria's army. On Tuesday, parliament approved a six-month extension of a state of emergency in three north-eastern states - Adamawa, Borno and Yobe.

More than 1,000 people have been killed in Boko Haram attacks this year. Boko Haram is fighting to overthrow the government and create an Islamic state. Nigeria's violence is not confined to the north. This month a car bomb in the capital Abuja killed at least 19 people and injured 60 more.

The explosion happened close to a bus station where at least 70 people died in a bomb blast on the 14th of April. The violence will not abate any time soon.