Boko Haram claim responsibility for Abuja explosion

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/apr/19/boko-haram-abuja-blast

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Islamic extremists on Saturday claimed responsibility for the massive rush-hour explosion earlier this week that ripped through a busy bus station in Nigeria's capital, Abuja, killing at least 75 people and wounding 141.

"Yes, we are the ones who carried out the attack in Abuja," Abubakar Shekau, leader of the Boko Haram terrorist network, said in the video, which was received through the same channels as previous ones. "We are in your city, but you don't know where we are."

Shekau, speaking in Nigeria's Hausa language, made no mention of the abductions of more than 100 girls and young women from a remote north-eastern school hours after the bomb blast, also blamed on his fighters. Officials say dozens of the girls have managed to escape, but 85 remain unaccounted for.

Parents and townspeople have joined security forces and vigilantes searching the Sambisa forest for the kidnapped girls – a dangerous area, as it is known to contain militant hideouts.

Borno state's education commissioner, Musa Inuwo Kubo, said on Friday that the girls who escaped had been sent to their homes all for their own safety. It was unclear why the military had not deployed troops at least to the school, where the girls had been taken after escaping. Some managed to jump off the back of the truck into which they were bundled in the dark of the pre-dawn attack, while others had reportedly escaped from a militant camp, wandering in the bush until they were found.

Monday's explosion in Abuja, 15 minutes' drive from the presidential villa, was the first attack in two years on the capital, which is in the heart of the country and hundreds of miles (kilometers) from the militants' traditional stronghold in the north-east. The death toll is expected to rise when pathologists complete their examination of the blast area.

The attack undermined government and military claims that they had contained the Islamic uprising to the extreme north-east of the country, and has raised fears that the insurgency is spreading.

President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in May 2013 and flooded the area with troops, who proceeded to drive out the extremists. But they have been struggling for months now to dislodge the extremists from their hideouts in the forest and in mountain caves along the border with Cameroon.

Boko Haram – the name means "western education is sinful" – says western education and influence have corrupted Africans and that only Islamic law can save Nigeria from endemic corruption that is impoverishing citizens of Africa's biggest oil producer and it's economic powerhouse. Nowhere is poorer than the northeast, the birthplace of Boko Haram where only about 5 percent of children finish high school, and only a tiny percentage of those are female.