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Updated 1.05pm
TWIN BLASTS a bus station packed with morning commuters on the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital killed at least 71 people today, in what appeared to be the latest attack by Boko Haram Islamists.
“We have a total of 71 dead and 124 others injured. (The wounded) are receiving treatment at hospitals within and around” Abuja, national police spokesman Frank Mba told journalists at the scene.
The explosions rocked the Nyanya station roughly five kilometres south of Abuja at 6.45am and destroyed some 30 vehicles, mostly large passenger buses, officials and an AFP reporter said.
The head of search and rescue operations at the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Charles Otegbade, said one of the blasts “emanated from a vehicle” within the station but the precise nature of the explosion was not immediately clear.
No group has yet claimed the apparent attack, but suspicion is likely to fall on Boko Haram, an insurgent group blamed for killing thousands across northern and central Nigeria since 2009.
The Islamists have attacked Nigeria’s capital in the past, most prominently in a 2011 car bombing at the United Nations headquarters in the city that killed at least 26 people.
The explosions left a hole roughly four feet deep and scattered personal items as well as human flesh across the compound, an AFP reporter at the scene said.
Boko Haram violence has cost more than 1,500 lives already this year, but most of the unrest has affected villages in the remote northeast.
The military in May of last year launched a massive offensive to crush the Islamist uprising and has described Boko Haram as being in disarray and on the defensive.
A major attack in the capital, just a few kilometres from the seat of government, will likely cast further doubt on the success of that campaign.
Bus parks have been among Boko Haram’s most favoured targets, including multiple, coordinated bombings at a terminal in the northern city of Kano last year that killed more than 40 people.
Rebels based in the southern oil-producing Niger Delta region have also claimed attacks in the capital, notably a car bombing on independence day in 2010.
But that group, the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND), is described by most analysts as being largely defunct.
The explosion “affected quite a number of people because it was still early in the morning and there was a lot of traffic”, Otegbade told reporters at the scene.
The private Channels television news network showed images of thick black smoke billowing out from the station.
President Goodluck Jonathan was reportedly on his way to the scene to assess the damage.
Jonathan, expected to face a tough re-election battle next February, has faced mounting criticism of the continuing Boko Haram violence.
An escalation of violence in or near Abuja would pile further pressure on the embattled leader.
Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, has in recent video messages vowed to widen his insurgency outside the group’s northeastern stronghold.
If the Irish Govt are giving you advice on anything Internet related then you really do have problems.
Especially seeing as the same government were still using Windows Xp despite it being discontinued, I think that particular failure cost the taxpayer €3.5 million.
“The Government is thinking” – I stopped reading after that silly line.
No doubt they’ll introduce an Internet tax to pay for it.
Just send all your usernames and passwords to the relevant department.
Don’t they have them already.
The government won’t be happy until they have full control of the Internet, way to free for them at the moment.
All those Facebook videos of guards beating people up and people saying they are sh!t on this site must do the powers that be heads in.
It’s driving the powers that be nuts that there is something they can’t control.
The Internet has aided in exposing corruption and tranny. But at the same time has given them a tool for spying and keeping tabs on the public.
A few lads I know have been caught out cross dressing on the internet….
Corruption and transsexuality go hand in hand in many governments
Should read :
“The Government Is Thinking Up New Ways To Hack You”
:)
You are okay there, government – I’ll control my own information, if you don’t mind.
The same government who helped setup Irish Water, a company which they gave carte blanche powers to violate every part of the data protection act to track every citizen and all of their personal information in this country, and even after spending €80 million on consultants still ended up sending bills to dead people now want to give us advice on how not to get our data stolen online? Oh the sweet irony.
Is €80mn the final Bill?
The sub text to this article is control , but let’s start small and the government is doing it to protect you .
“It’s a great place for free speech, and so that must be protected, but in a way that is acceptable in the eyes of reasonable people.”
Now…what other asshat pocket stuffing politician coined the ‘reasonable people’ phrase…….I take it the ‘reasonable people’ are only those who agree with the Government and everyone else are ‘unreasonable people’ even if they are in the majority.
There appears to be 2 terms missing in this article .. “Snowden” and “encryption security” .. Ignoring Snowden for a moment (people usually do btw) , the degrading of encryption protection from the “Five Eyes” network and their political masters/slaves is a major stumbling block to stopping “hackers” and “other agencies” from attacking electronic networks.
Encrypted emails services are now illegal in Spain, The UK, China, North Korea and this is gaining ground in many other countries.
Snowden advised that people have password phrases, otherwise their passwords could be easily hacked in seconds..
Snowden also talked of the security apparatus being designed for attack and not defence (because of backdoors and encryption busting techniques.
Point is that if the governments can do it so can any half trained computer technician..
Using the war on terror to degrade our human rights (ie privacy) is not a good excuse, in fact, it plays into the hands of the terrorists and sends a chilling effect to the rest of the population.
Google Stasi techniques and consequences in east germany. And then put the surveillance apparatus now in place in the mix. I Hope that we dont have the wrong people get into power.. that might be very scary.
And lastly .. In an age of such surveillance techniques, If Ireland was invaded it would take an enemy about 1 hour to have a list of all possible AND FUTUREthreats against them (the wonders of technology) and we have no protections..
Snowden worked for a private company with access to all you phone calls and emails going back years.. And your childrens for that matter..
Too late… lol.
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