Nyanya Bombing: Boko Haram Claims Responsibility

Terrorist group, Boko Haram, has claimed responsibility for the Nyanya attack in a video obtained Saturday, as the search continued for 85 schoolgirls still missing after a mass abduction by the Islamists.

The bombing at a bus station packed with morning commuters early on Monday killed at least 75 people on the outskirts of Abuja, hours before gunmen kidnapped 129 girls from a school in northeastern Borno state, Boko Haram’s base.

The shock of the bombing and the kidnapping, which have broad worldwide condemnation, have underscored the serious threat posed by the insurgents to Africa’s most populous country and wealthiest economy.

“We are the ones that carried out the attack in Abuja,” Boko Haram’s leader Abubakar Shekau said in video message obtained by AFP.

“We are in your city but you don’t know where we are.”

Shekau, declared a global terrorist by the United States which has a $7 million (5.1 million euro) bounty on his head, spoke in Arabic and the Hausa language that is dominant in northern Nigeria.

The 28-minute video made no reference to the abductions from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok but the military, local officials and girls who have escaped have blamed that attack on Boko Haram.

Borno’s education commissioner Inua Kubo told journalists late on Friday that 14 more girls had been found, leaving 85 girls still missing.

Some girls had escaped immediately after the kidnapping, jumping off the back of a truck as the Islamists tried to cart them away under the cover of darkness.

It was not yet clear how the latest group managed to flee, but Kubo said 11 were found in a town on the road that connects Chibok to Borno’s capital Maiduguri, and three others had fled back to their school.

Some of those who escaped earlier this week said the hostages were taken to the Sambisa Forest area, where Boko Haram is known to have well fortified camps.

The military said it had launched a major search and rescue operation, but some in the region say they have lost confidence in the security forces after the defence ministry issued an erroneous report claiming that most of the girls were safe.

That statement, issued late on Wednesday, said all but eight of those abducted were free, but defence spokesman Chris Olukolade was forced to withdraw the report on Friday after it turned out to be inaccurate.

Source: Legit.ng