Bombings kill at least 118 in central Nigerian city of Jos
Islamists Boko Haram a prime suspect as bombs target crowded business, market area
Back-to-back bomb blasts killed at least 118 people and wounded 45 in the crowded business district of the central Nigerian city of Jos on Wednesday Hong Kong time, emergency services said, in an attack that appeared to bear the hallmarks of the Boko Haram insurgents.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility. But the militant group Boko Haram, which has set off bombs across the north and centre of Nigeria in an increasingly bloody campaign for an Islamic state, was likely to be the prime suspect in what would rank among their deadliest single attacks in five years of insurrection.
Watch: Twin Nigeria car bombs kill hundreds in Jos
Boko Haram grabbed world headlines by abducting more than 200 schoolgirls on April 14 from the northeastern village of Chibok. Britain, the United States and France have pledged to help rescue them.
If the Jos attack was the handiwork of Boko Haram, it would show their growing reach in Africa’s top oil producing and most populous country, striking out beyond their heartland in Nigeria’s semi-arid and weakly governed northeast. Several bombs have exploded outside that region over the past month.