• Many feared dead after entire wing of Abuja building is levelled
• No immediate claim of responsibility for blast
Agencies in Abuja
guardian.co.uk, Friday 26 August 2011 12.07 BST
Abuja, the Nigerian capital, where part of the country's UN
headquarters has been levelled in an apparent bombing. Photograph:
Alamy
Many people are feared dead after a large explosion tore through a
United Nations building in Abuja, the Nigerian capital, levelling one
wing of the building.
Witnesses said police and emergency workers were carrying bodies from
the building after the explosion, which happened just before 11am.
Police and the wounded thronged around the three-storey building as
people began to search for victims.
Alessandra Vellucci, a spokeswoman for the UN in Geneva, said its
offices in Abuja had been bombed. She told the Associated Press that
there was no word yet on casualties.
Michael Ofilaje, a Unicef worker at the building, said: "I saw
scattered bodies. Many people are dead."
Ofilaje told the Associated Press it felt like "the blast came from
the basement and shook the building".
The building houses about 400 employees of the UN in Nigeria and the
majority of its offices.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for blast, but oil-rich
Nigeria faces terrorist threats on multiple fronts. Last year, a
militant group from the country's oil-producing Niger Delta detonated
car bombs in the capital during Nigeria's 50th independence
anniversary ceremony, killing at least 12.
A nation of 150 million people, Nigeria is split between a largely
Christian south and Muslim north. In recent months, the country has
faced an increasing threat from a radical Muslim sect called Boko
Haram, which wants to implement a strict version of Shariah law. The
sect has carried out assassinations and bombings, including the June
car bombing of the national headquarters of Nigeria's federal police
that killed at least two people.
Earlier this month, the commander for US military operations in Africa
said Boko Haram may be trying to forge connections with two groups
linked to al-Qaida in other African countries to mount joint attacks
in Nigeria.
© 2011 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies.
All rights reserved.
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