Jerry Douglas' Blog

MAIDUGURI (AFP) – Heavily armed Islamist gunmen kidnapped a group of girls from a secondary school in northeast Nigeria’s Borno state and torched the surrounding town, a local official and a witness told AFP. “Many girls were abducted by the rampaging gunmen who stormed the school in a convoy of vehicles,” said Emmanuel Sam, an education official in the town of Chibok, where the attack took place on Monday. The attackers are suspected to be members of Boko Haram, a radical Islamist group whose name means “Western education is forbidden”. It has repeatedly attacked schools in the northeast during an insurgency that has killed thousands since 2009. The gunmen came “in trucks and on motorcycles and headed to the school”, where they overpowered soldiers deployed to guard it, said a witness who requested anonymity. He said soldiers had been deployed to provide extra security ahead of yearly exams, but the gunmen “subdued the soldiers and took the girls away”. He was not able to...

World wide terrorist, 'White Widow' Samantha Lewthwaite, has been linked to the huge terror attack which occurred today in Abuja. The huge explosion destroyed forty buses and left a sickening trail of death and destruction as fuel tanks on nearby vehicles also exploded amid the heat of the blast. But while nobody has officially claimed responsibility, security sources, according to reports fear the bombing may have been a revenge attack for the death of Lewthwaite's mentor two weeks ago - al-Shabaab terror chief Makaburi, aka Sheikh Abubakar Shariff Ahmed. A senior security source said agents across Africa were on high alert after the assassination of Makaburi - reportedly by the UK and US funded Kenyan Anti-Terror Police Unit (ATPU) 14 days ago. Adding that Lewthwaite and her associates "wanted revenge". The source said:   "Makaburi was always believed to be at the very top of the hierarchy of terror organisation al-Shabaab. Intelligence sugge...

United Nations Secretary-General, Mr. Ban Ki-moon on Monday night tasked the President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration to ensure they urgently look for the perpetrators of the bomb blast that killed scores of people in Abuja and to bring them to justice. More than 70 people have reportedly been killed in the bombing, which took place as commuters were about to board buses and taxis to go to work in the capital. Over 100 people are said to be injured in the attack. Mr. Ban Ki-moon who said he was shocked and saddened by the many lives that were lost on Monday, added that the United Nations would throw its weight behind the federal government to curb insecurity in Nigeria. * President Jonathan He also strongly condemned all indiscriminate killings and acts of violent extremism in the northern parts of Nigeria, stressing that the perpetrators of this attack, and those responsible for the continuing brutal attacks must be brought to justice. Also, members of the United Na...

The United States on Monday condemned a bomb attack on a packed bus station in Nigeria which killed 71 people, and called for a full investigation. Jen Psaki Speaking on the attack, the United States spokeswoman Jen Psaki condemned the terrorist attack and called for a full investigation to find the perpetrators. “We are outraged by this senseless act of violence against innocent civilians,” Jen Psaki told reporters, also condemning a series of attacks on three villages in Borno State over the weekend. The bomb, which also injured 124 people, rocked the Nyanya station on Abuja’s southern outskirts as it was filled with morning commuters, leaving body parts scattered across the terminal and destroying dozens of vehicles. President Goodluck Jonathan blamed Boko Haram militants for the attack, but Psaki called for a “full investigation to identify and bring justice to the perpetrators of these attacks.” “We continue to stand with the Nigerian government and people as they g...