KANO, May 18, 2014 (AFP) – A suspected car bomb ripped through a crowded entertainment spot in the north Nigerian city of Kano on Sunday, witnesses said.
Also at least 40 villagers were killed and several others injured on Saturday evening in Dalwa-Masuba village of Damboa local of Borno state in northeast Nigerian, security sources and witnesses said.
Four people were killed, including a young girl, in the suicide car bomb attack, the Kano State police commissioner said.
A man checks the wreckage of a car at the scene of a suicide blast at the predominantly Christian Sabon Gari neighbourhood in Kano, northern Nigeria, on May 18, 2014. Five people including the bomber were killed when an explosives-laden car exploded near an open-air beer garden, destroying six cars and shattering windows of several buildings. AFP PHOTO
“At about 2200 (2100 GMT), we heard an explosion and immediately mobilised to the scene where we discovered a suicide bomber… five people, including the bomber, were killed,” Adelere Shinaba told reporters, adding that the victims were “three men and a girl of about 12″.
Shinaba said it was too early to say who was responsible for the attack, which happened in the busy Sabon Giri district of the city.
Locals also said the blast was on a busy road lined with bars in the predominantly Christian area of Sabon Giri, and the blast could be heard several kilometres (miles) away, Channels television said 10 people had been killed.
Another eye witness who call Vanguard on phone said that about twenty five people were killed as a result of the bast.
A Reporter said the charred and mangled remains of five cars could be seen outside one of the many bars and eateries on the now deserted street, which was dimly lit because of power cuts.
A sixth car, a Volkswagen Golf said by police to have been used by the bomber, was ripped into three pieces, with its engine resting on the roadside.
Windows on the two-storey buildings lining the street were smashed and armed police and soldiers stood guard.
The blast happened at about 9:30 pm (2030 GMT) when the area was crowded with revellers as well as street hawkers and traders.
Witnesses claimed that a car was left in the Middle Road area of Sabon Giri and its driver left on a motorbike. The blast happened soon afterwards.
Kano is Nigeria’s second-most populous city and a commercial centre for the whole of the Muslim-majority north.
Local government elections were held in Kano on Saturday, at which the main opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) routed the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) of President Goodluck Jonathan, winning all 44 seats.
The PDP alleged irregularities and said it would challenge the result, local newspapers said.
Links were made on social networking sites to the local election but the explosion also came a day after Nigeria and its neighbours announced a regional response to the threat by Boko Haram Islamists.
Two survivors of a suicide bomb blast sit in the emergency unit of Kano’s hospital, northern Nigeria, on May 18, 2014. Five people including the bomber were killed when an explosives-laden car exploded near an open-air beer garden, destroying six cars and shattering windows of several buildings. AFP
The militant group has been holding 223 of 276 girls it kidnapped from a school in the town of Chibok, in northeastern Borno state, on April 14, which has led to an international response to find them.
40 killed village, burnt as gunmen assail Borno village
About 40 villagers were killed and several others injured on Saturday evening in Dalwa-Masuba village of Damboa local of Borno state in northeast Nigerian, security sources and witnesses said.
The gunmen who were reported to have attacked the villages in their large numbers also burnt down the entire village along side three pickup vans carrying fire woods from Damboa to Maiduguri, the state capital.
A member of the security vigilante (Abbas Gava) who spoke on phone, said no security personnel had reached the attacked town at the time he was speaking.
“We heard about the attack from some of the villagers who fled the village, and we had to drive there on our patrol van; the entire village was set on fire, and about 40 persons lying dead all over the place; three firewood pickups were also set ablaze”, the local vigilante said.
But the attack however has not been confirmed by the police and other security operatives, as all their phone numbers could not be reached for confirmation as at press time.
