Nigerian Terror Sect Bombs Police Motorcade
Nigerian terror sect Boko Haram launched a bomb at a police motorcade in the unsteady city of Maiduguri, according to reports on Tuesday from officials in the area. No one was killed in the attacks.
The motorcade held Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima and proceeded down a road from the airport lined by supporters. The attack occurred Monday, after Shettima returned from the Nigerian capital, Abuja.
"There was a blast targeted at one of our vehicles, but it did not hit its target," Borno State Police Commissioner Simeon Midenda told AFP. "It was a mild explosion. Nobody was killed or injured."
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Reports say there were at least three explosions, one of which was used to distract government officials while Boko Haram militiamen fired indiscriminately. The shooters retreated shortly thereafter.
Boko Haram recently declared the nearby city of Damaturu as their headquarters after recent violence killed hundreds of people and forced nearly all Christians to vacate the town.
Christian organizations have called for President Goodluck Jonathan to declare emergency rule in the northeastern region of the country. Jonathan sent soldiers and instituted a curfew last week, but violence has continued.
Despite Monday’s bombing and an attack that killed two this weekend, the federal government says it still has control over the region. Jonathan told reporters the problem posed by Boko Haram is “temporary.”
A Boko Haram attack on Nov. 4 killed 150 people in three northeastern cities, and early estimates are that 120 of those slain were Christians.
The terror sect is trying to implement Shariah, or Islamic law, in Nigeria. The country is divided almost evenly between Muslims (who occupy the north) and Christians (who occupy the south). Boko Haram targets any group of people who disagree with its fundamentalism – a group that includes Muslims – but have targeted Christians in the north and in rural areas.
Boko Haram relies on its remote, economically depressed location to recruit youth, including those from nearby Niger and Chad.
