Boko Haram militants were on Wednesday suspected of carrying out a deadly bomb attack against football fans watching the World Cup in northern Nigeria, in the latest violence targeting the game. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blast in the Nayi-Nama area of Damaturu on Tuesday night but the Islamists have previously carried out attacks on informal, big screen venues. Boko Haram, which in April kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls in northeast Nigeria to international condemnation, has been waging a brutal, five-year insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives. Residents in Nayi-Nama said the bomb appeared to have been hidden in a motorised rickshaw outside the Crossfire venue, where crowds had gathered to watch tournament hosts Brazil play Mexico. The blast happened at about 8:15 pm (1915 GMT), 15 minutes after the match kicked off in Fortaleza, tearing corrugated roofs from nearby buildings and throwing masonry across a wide area, television pictures showed. We received 21 dead bodies and 27 injured victims from the blast, a source at the Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital in Damaturu, told AFP. - Investigation opened - Soldiers and police brought in the dead and injured from the scene of the blast, which was quickly cordoned off, the source said. The victims are young men and children. They have burns, ruptured tissue and bone fractures, he added. Yobe state police commissioner Sanusi Rufai said at least 14 people were killed and 26 injured. Conflicting death tolls are common in Nigeria and the authorities often round down the number of victims. Our forensic experts are conducting on-the-scene assessment to establish what really happened. We will make public our findings when investigations are concluded, he added. At the hospital, television pictures showed packed wards of men lying on blood-stained mattresses with bandages on their hands and legs. One told Nigerias Channels station that he was passing by the centre when the bomb went off: I couldnt tell what happened because everybody was struggling to survive, he said. - Football un-Islamic - The head of footballs world governing body FIFA, Sepp Blatter, wrote on Twitter: Terrible to read of fatalities & injuries in Nigeria, where fans were watching the #WorldCup. Football should unite people, not divide them. The blast was the latest in a series at so-called viewing centres in Nigeria blamed on Boko Haram, which has previously attacked schools teaching a Western curriculum and Christian churches. Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has preached against football as part of the Islamist groups agenda to impose strict Islamic law in northern Nigeria. In several video clips, he described football and music as a Western ploy to distract Muslims from their religion. In April this year, suspected Boko Haram gunmen also stormed a packed venue in Potiskum, also in Yobe, shooting dead two people as they watched European Champions League quarter- final matches. Football is Nigerias national sport and has a fanatical following but recent blasts targeting fans in northeastern Adamawa and the central state of Plateau have led the authorities to close big screen venues on security grounds.
Posted on: Thu, 19 Jun 2014 00:20:01 +0000
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