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Boko Haram claims bombing of Shiite procession in Nigeria

The provisional toll is seven dead, including the two suicide bombers, as well as two soldiers injured.

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Jihad monitoring service SITE Intelligence said Boko Haram – which rarely claims responsibility for attacks – had named the bomber in a message on Twitter. “Thirty-eight people have also been injured, two of whom have been discharged from the hospital”.

The attack occurred during the annual Arbaeen procession from Nigeria’s second-largest city, Kano, to the ancient Islamic city of Zaria, said Aliyu Yusuf Kakaki, a spokesman for the Shiite community in Kano.

The females detonated themselves when troops tried to apprehend them in Dabanga village on Saturday evening, after local vigilantes reported suspicious behavior, Bakary said in an interview in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde.

It has been criticised by other extremist groups, including al-Qaida, for indiscriminately killing fellow Muslims.

And in late September, coordinated attacks by Boko Haram killed more than 50 people, including worshippers at a mosque, bystanders and football fans watching a televised match in the northern city of Maiduguri.

President Muhammadu Buhari has given a December deadline for the army to end the Boko Haram insurgency. The rise in terrorism can largely be attributed to two groups: ISIS; and Boko Haram, the Nigerian jihadist group that pledged allegiance to ISIS in March of 2015.

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“What happened recently in France had a profound effect on all of us, but very few countries realize that Nigeria has suffered terrorist casualties of over 10,000 killed in the last six years”, the statement said.

Suicide bomber hits Shi'ite procession in Nigeria's Kano state