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Explosions In Nigeria Kill 150; Islamist Militants Take Responsibility

Catherine Green |
January 21, 2012 | 2:37 p.m. PST

Executive Producer

Kano, where coordinated explosions Friday killed 150 people. (Wikimedia Commons)
Kano, where coordinated explosions Friday killed 150 people. (Wikimedia Commons)
Roughly 150 people are dead in Nigeria as a result of coordinated attacks by Islamist militant group Boko Haram.

According to the BBC, the explosions targeting police buildings and immigration centers were an attempt by the group to overthrow the country's government and establish an Islamic state.

From the BBC:

President Goodluck Jonathan promised that the perpetrators would "face the full wrath of the law".

"As a responsible government, we will not fold our hands and watch enemies of democracy, for that is what these mindless killers are, perpetrate unprecedented evil in our land,'' he said.

Boko Haram, which loosely translates from the local Hausa language as "Western education is forbidden", has been behind a string of attacks in recent years.

The group wants Islamic law across Nigeria, whose population is split between the largely Muslim north, and the south where Christianity and traditional beliefs predominate.

It first hit the headlines in 2009 when a spate of attacks by its followers on police and government buildings in the city of Maiduguri led to a crackdown in which hundreds died.

More recently, the group has launched bomb attacks on churches, drive-by shootings on government targets and other attacks across northern Nigeria, killing scores and forcing many more to flee.

But the Kano attacks appear to be the group's most deadly co-ordinated assault.

The BBC's Mark Doyle reported from the wreckage in Nigerian city Kano:

All day long people have been streaming towards the mortuary of the main hospital in Kano to look for the bodies of loved ones so they can be taken for burial. The cars used to collect the corpses are then marked with a small tree branch - a traditional symbol showing that a body is being transported.

Mortuary workers have been struggling to cope with the large number of bodies - the majority of victims appeared to be civilians but there were some uniformed police officers among the dead as well.

The Red Cross and various Nigerian emergency response organisations have been helping to deliver wounded people to hospital and move corpses. The number of dead is likely to rise in the coming days as buildings that were blown up are searched.

The president has yet to release a firm plan for handling the attacks or holding Boko Haram accountable.

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