President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Wednesday called for increased vigilance among Nigerians in order to tackle the increase of suicide terror attacks on soft targets around the country.
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Ban Ki-Moon also reiterated the UN’s support to President Buhari’s Government in its fight against terrorism.
Three northeastern Nigerian states, Adamawa, Borno and Yobe, remain under a state of emergency because of Boko Haram’s attacks. “How much longer must people in Nigeria be forced to live in fear as such heinous attacks are committed against them?” said Netsanet Belay, Amnesty International’s Africa Research and Advocacy Director. It had failed to activate it when more than 40 people were killed in suicide bombings in Beirut on Thursday.
While it’s suspected militant Islamist group Boko Haram is behind the attack, no group has claimed responsibility.
The Global Terrorism Index 2015, the latest report from the Institute for Economics and Peace, identifies Boko Haram as more deadly even than ISIS, to which it has pledged allegiance.
On Tuesday night at least 31 people were killed when a blast hit the city of Yola.
“Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Yusufu Buratai, who is on constant communication with the troops, commended them for this singular act and other similar feats and encouraged them to do more so that the terrorists are on the verge of being defeated”.
Analysts say Nigeria’s military is too thin to hold ground and that as it takes one area, the extremists slip into another in the vast arid spaces dotted by forests in the northeast.
The explosions occurred around 4 p.m. (1500 GMT) at the Farm Centre phone market, near the centre of Nigeria’s second biggest city, and come the day after a blast in the northeastern city of Yola killed 32 people and wounded 80 others.
The lull suggests the military’s strategy of cutting off Boko Haram’s supply routes and targeting its camps is working, forcing the Islamic State group affiliate to revert to guerrilla tactics.
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Police put the death toll at least 17, including the two suicide bombers, but witnesses said as many as 25 people could have been killed.
