Boko Haram Bombs Police Station, Kills 2 Cops

A police station in Nigeria’s restive
northeast, has been attacked by gunmen
with explosives and rocket-propelled
grenades, killing two officers and
injuring another in an incident similar to
previous raids by Islamist extremists, Boko Haram, authorities said Thursday. “The heavily armed gunmen headed to
the police station and burnt it down
using IEDs (improvised explosive devices)
and RPGs before engaging our men in a
shootout in which we lost two officers
while a third sustained gunshot wounds,” Adamawa state police
spokesman Mohammed Ibrahim told
AFP. He said the attackers, in cars and on
motorcycles stormed Ga’anda village on
Wednesday where they burnt down the
police station with homemade bombs
and grenades. “Our officers were overpowered by the
attackers who had superior firepower,”
he said, adding that a police patrol
vehicle was also burnt in the attack that
lasted two hours. No arrest has been made, he added. Residents of Ga’anda said some 20
gunmen had entered the village around
9:00 p.m. chanting “Allahu Akbar”. Nigerian authorities in May launched a
military offensive aiming to end a deadly
four-year insurgency by Islamist
extremist group Boko Haram focused in
the country’s northeast. Violence linked to the insurgency has left
more than 3,600 dead since 2009,
including killings by the security forces,
who have been accused of major abuses. The group has claimed to be fighting for
the creation of an Islamic state in Africa’s
most populous nation and largest oil
producer, though it is believed to have a
number of factions with varying aims

UN, UK Condemn Borno Mosque Massacre

The United Nations and the United Kingdom have condemned the massacre of 44 people in Borno State who were killed as they prayed in their mosque by the Boko Haram Islamic sect last Sunday.

Gunmen wearing Nigerian army camouflage fatigues struck under cover of darkness as residents were saying their dawn prayers at around 5:30 a.m. last Sunday, just as another 12 civilians died in a simultaneous attack on Ngom village just outside Maiduguri, .

British Cabinet Minister, Mark Simmonds, yesterday condemned the attack as “contemptible and cowardly”.

“Attacking innocent people in a place of worship is a contemptible and cowardly act,” the Foreign Office Minister for Africa Mark Simmonds said in a statement Tuesday.

He said Britain “stands with the government and people of Nigeria as they seek to reduce violence in the north east of the country.”

Also speaking on the attack, UN Secretary General, Ban ki Moon called for dialogue in resolving the violence.

A report in UN News Centre yesterday said the Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in a statement signed by his spokesperson called on all extremist groups in Nigeria to cease attacks, after 44 people were killed in Borno State, including worshippers reportedly shot to death while praying inside a mosque.

“The Secretary-General strongly condemns the recent violent attacks that have killed scores of civilians in the localities of Mafa and Kondugo in Borno State,” his spokesperson said in a statement.

Ban therefore called on all parties to resolve their differences through dialogue and other peaceful means.

“The Secretary-General reiterated his firm conviction that no objective can be attained through such violence,” the spokesperson stressed.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s Interior Minister, Abba Moro, has dismissed the attack in the mosque and the Boko Haram threat as “desperate” and “isolated”.

Abba Moro in his reaction told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme yesterday that, “The security agencies of Nigeria have been able to push the Boko Haram sect from their major strongholds”.