MyWeku

Dozens are feared dead as the United Nations building in Abuja, Nigeria is bombed. The UN building is close to the US embassy and other foreign embassies.  A search for survivors and the wounded is currently ongoing. A police spokesman in Abuja stated that “I can confirm there was an explosion at the U.N. building, we have deployed our policemen and anti-bomb squad. We can’t establish   how many casualties (there are).”

Nigeria has seen a spate of bomb attacks on police stations and other instituitions.  A powerful bomb blast in a police car park in June 2011  by Boko Haram, a group that has vowed to introduce sharia law across Nigera and another attack which occured after Nigeria’s current president was sworn in both claimed several lives.

Boko Haram means “Western Education is a Sin” in Hausa, a language spoken by over 25 million Africans and is the main language in Nigeria’s Northern Region.

So far Nigeria’s bomb attacks have been concentrated on innocent civilians and installations used by the  county’s security forces. Targetting the United Nations, an international organisation sadly seems to be an escalation that will surely bring international focus on these terrorist attacks in Nigeria. It also calls into question the ability of Nigeria’s security forces to adequately deal with such attacks or indeed it’s ability to protect foreign interests in the country.