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Islamist Group Claims Responsibility For Nigerian UN Blast

26.08.2011 17:00

By RFE/RL

A radical Islamist group in Nigeria has claimed responsibility for a car-bomb attack on UN headquarters in the capital city of Abuja that killed at least 18 people.

A spokesman for the shadowy insurgent group Boko Haram, which means "Western education is sinful," made the claim in a phone interview with the BBC’s Hausa-language service.

The group has reported links to Al-Qaeda.

An aide to Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan confirmed police figures, which put the current death toll from the attack at at least 18. Local reports said dozens were wounded.

Reports say as many as 400 people may have been inside the UN building at the time of the attack early on August 26.

Mike Zuokumor, police commissioner for the Abuja region, told journalists that a suicide bomber was behind the blast, which he said occurred when a car laden with explosives rammed into the building.

"[A] vehicle, loaded with explosives, drove against traffic, entered the exit gate smashed it, got to the second gate, smashed it, went to the reception and detonated, and the man inside the vehicle died," Zuokumor said.

Footage shows the building badly damaged.

International Condemnation

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon strongly condemned the attack and said "considerable" casualties were expected.

"This was an assault on those who devote their lives to helping others," Ban said. "We condemn this terrible act utterly."

Speaking at a news conference at UN headquarters in New York, Ban said he was sending his deputy, Asha-Rose Migiro, to Nigeria immediately to meet officials in Abuja. She will be accompanied by UN security chief Gregory Starr.

Nigeria's ambassador to the United Nations, Joy Ogwu, told reporters that her government considered the attack to be "not only on the civilian population, but especially on the UN family, the UN as an institution."

Ogwu added that she believed the attack added "a new dimension to threats, not only on the domestic front, but internationally. This is a transnational crime. Terrorism is a transnational crime, and Nigeria unequivocally condemns every act of terrorism."

European Union President Herman Van Rompuy denounced the attack as "senseless" and "brutal."

In a statement, U.S. President Barack Obama called the bombing "horrific and cowardly."

"The UN has been working in partnership with the people of Nigeria for more than five decades. An attack on Nigerian and international public servants demonstrates the bankruptcy of the ideology that led to this heinous action," Obama's statement said.

Boko Haram Suspected

An unidentified UN official in Nigeria told the BBC that the UN had received information last month that it could be targeted by Boko Haram -- a radical group that wants to establish an Islamic state. Security was stepped up in response.

A car bombing at Abuja's police headquarters in June was blamed on Boko Haram, and the group has stepped up attacks in recent months.

But there has been no claim of responsibility for the attack on the UN office, which is located in the diplomatic area in the center of the city, close to the U.S. Embassy.

Alex Vines knows the UN's Abuja headquarters well in his work as head of the Africa program at the London-based Chatham House think tank.

"It's a big building that clusters many of the different UN agencies that are operating out of Nigeria," he told RFE/RL. "And if this whole wing has collapsed, which is what the photographs I've seen seem to confirm, I can but fear that many people including some I know may have been injured and possibly killed."

Terror Target

Nigeria, with a population of 150 million, is split between a largely Christian south and a Muslim north.

The oil-rich country faces terrorism threats on multiple fronts.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta, which has grievances over redistribution and issues of self-determination, was behind bomb attacks in October 2010 aimed at the celebrations that marked 50 years of independence.

Today's attack is the latest in a series of deadly bombings of UN buildings in recent years.

In 2007, a car bombing at the UN building in Algiers killed at least 41 people.

In 2003, 22 people were killed by a bomb attack at the UN building in Baghdad, including UN envoy Sergio Vieira de Mello.

with agency reports

Source: http://www.rferl.org/content/nigeria_un_explosion_fatalities/24308945.html

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Islamist Group Claims Responsibility For Nigerian UN Blast