NIGERIA: Back-to-back bomb blasts targeting a crowded business and market area in the central Nigerian city of Jos kill at least 118 people and wound 45, according to emergency services

Record ID: 236742

  • Title: NIGERIA: Back-to-back bomb blasts targeting a crowded business and market area in the central Nigerian city of Jos kill at least 118 people and wound 45, according to emergency services
  • Date: 20th May 2014
  • Summary: JOS, PLATEAU STATE, NIGERIA (MAY 20, 2014) (REUTERS) CRATER CAUSED BY EXPLOSION WRECKAGE OF DESTROYED CAR AND DAMAGED SHOP FRONTS DESTROYED WALL NEAR SITE OF BLAST PEOPLE WALKING TOWARD SITE OF BLAST IN TERMINUS (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED EYEWITNESS, SAYING: "I went to get something in Terminus, then I saw the explosion go up, with a number of people I saw - there were pieces, and they were cut out. In the car they were taking them out, some in a wooden barrow. They were taking them out, there were pieces. So around there, that was before the bridge in Terminus. I saw there was a car that was there, a (Toyota) Sienna car that was there. So people came and they were turning over the Sienna over there. So when we were running, then when we were running we saw the explosion of the Sienna and we ran and we left there. That was how I saw the incident." VARIOUS OF FIRE ENGINE BACKING AWAY FROM SITE OF BLAST / PLUMES OF BLACK SMOKE RISING IN DISTANCE VEHICLE BEING PUSHED ALONG STREET VARIOUS OF SECURITY VEHICLES GOING ALONG STREET WOMAN AND MAN WALKING ALONG STREET AWAY FROM SITE
  • Embargoed: 4th June 2014 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAG2GK1E3EAFCLARDUMP1ZTGFC
  • Story Text: Back-to-back bomb blasts killed at least 118 people and wounded 45 in the crowded business district of the central Nigerian city of Jos on Tuesday (May 20), emergency services said, in an attack that appeared to bear the hallmarks of the Boko Haram insurgents.
    The blasts took place in Terminus, the downtown area of Jos housing shops, some offices and a market. The explosions burned several shops to the ground, shattering windows and spreading rubble in the road. Police sirens wailed as officers rushed to the scene.
    Coordinator of the National Emergency Management Agency in Jos, Mohammed Abdulsalam, said 118 bodies had been recovered from the rubble, fearing the toll could still rise by morning.
    Plateau state Police Commissioner Chris Olakpe earlier confirmed a death toll of 46, adding that other wounded had been taken to hospital.
    A Reuters reporter saw 10 bodies burned beyond recognition at the bomb site opposite a hospital at Terminus.

    "I went to get something in Terminus, then I saw the explosion go up," said one local resident who witnessed the attacks.

    "With a number of people I saw - there were pieces, and they were cut out. In the car they were taking them out, some in a wooden barrow. They were taking them out, there were pieces. So around there, that was before the bridge in Terminus. I saw there was a car that was there, a (Toyota) Sienna car that was there. So people came and they were turning over the Sienna over there. So when we were running, then when we were running we saw the explosion of the Sienna and we ran and we left there. That was how I saw the incident," he added.
    There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the militant group Boko Haram, which has set off bombs across the north and centre of Nigeria in an increasingly bloody campaign for an Islamic state, was likely to be the prime suspect in what would rank among their deadliest single attacks in five years of insurrection.
    The back-to-back blast tactic, whose aim is to maximise civilian casualties, has also been used by militants in Iraq and other places.
    Boko Haram grabbed world headlines by abducting more than 200 schoolgirls on April 14 from the northeastern village of Chibok. Britain, the United States and France have pledged to help rescue them.
    If the Jos attack was the handiwork of Boko Haram, it would show their growing reach in Africa's top oil producing and most populous country, striking out beyond their heartland in Nigeria's semi-arid and weakly governed northeast. Several bombs have exploded outside that region over the past month.
    It was also likely calculated to stoke civil strife in Nigeria's most combustible ethnic and sectarian tinder box. Jos and the surrounding Plateau state have seen thousands killed in tit-for-tat violence between largely Christian Berom farmers and Muslim Fulani cattle herders over the past decade.
    Jos has been relatively free of attacks by Boko Haram, but it claimed responsibility for a bomb in a church in the highland city, as well as two other places, on Christmas Day in 2011.
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