from EMEKA OKONKWO in Abuja, Nigeria
Nigeria Bureau
ABUJA, (CAJ News) – THE killing of at least 30 people in terror attacks in northeastern Nigeria indicates Islamist groups have reverted to the deployment of so-called suicide bombers.
More than 100 people have been injured in the attacks in the Gwoza Local Government Area of Borno State on Saturday.
In the first attack, a suicide bomber entered a wedding ceremony and detonated their explosives. According to local authorities, another similar attack took place at a burial site in Gwoza.
No militant group had claimed responsibility for the attacks as of yet but these attacks bear the hallmarks of Boko Haram and its splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).
The militants have regularly carried out attacks in Borno, where communities are often targeted because they are accused of transmitting information to security forces and other groups fighting the Islamists.
There has been a lull in suicide bombings in recent years, with militants resorting to kidnappings.
The government has previously said the Islamists had been “technically defeated.”
The United Nations (UN) condemned the suicide bomb attacks on civilian populations.
Mohamed Malick Fall, the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, said, “I am horrified by this attack on civilian populations and condemn such acts in the strongest terms.”
He expressed solidarity with the government of Nigeria and the families and communities of all those affected.
“On behalf of the United Nations, I remind all parties to the conflict to adhere to their obligations under international humanitarian law to protect civilians from harm.”
Fall has reached out to the Borno State Government to express condolences and pledged to offer any support that the UN and the humanitarian community could provide to aid the victims of the attack.
Some sects aligned to Boko Haram have been involved in a violent campaign to establish an Islamic State in northeast Nigeria. Besides Borno, the states of Adamawa and Yobe are also affected.
These are some of the violent crimes besetting Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, which also endures oil theft and a declining economy as well as poverty and unemployment.
Some of these problems are said to be tempting nationals into crime in the West African country.
– CAJ News