Nigeria: bomb attacks on beer gardens kills 25
Boko Haram, an Islamic sect in northern Nigeria, have a history of violence. The picture shows what’s left of a church after Boko Haram burned it down and killed six people in a 2010 attack. On Sunday, the extremists attacked again, killing 25 people and injuring at least 12 others when they threw bombs into three beer gardens.
Bomb attacks believed to be carried out by Islamist extremists killed at least 25 people and wounded 12 in northeastern Nigeria Sunday.
Police told the Guardian two men riding motorcycles threw bombs into three beer gardens in Maiduguri, a city in Borno state.
"I just heard a loud bang followed by sporadic shootings and plumes of black smoke filled the area with people screaming and running in all directions," Emmanuel Okon reportedly told AFP.
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Authorities have blamed the Islamic sect Boko Haram, a group that believes Muslims should remove themselves from western society, BBC reports. The group is seeking to impose Shariah law in the country's north.
The state of Borno is one of a dozen in Nigeria that has adopted Shariah law, but beer gardens remain open there, out of public view.
Boko Haram, whose name means "western education is sacrilege," recently claimed responsibility for an attack on a police headquarters in the capital Abuja that killed 22.
The group has targeted the police, churches and Islamic clerics in the past.
Boko Haram has become Nigeria's main security threat, and crushing the group has become a priority for the government, Al Jazeera reports.
"There have been a series of meetings over the last week between Nigeria’s president, Goodluck Jonathan, and key security chiefs in Nigeria to figure out a strategy how exactly to get rid of Boko Haram," Al Jazeera's correspondent reported.
Security forces killed the group's leader, Mohammed Yusuf, and hundreds of his supporters in Maiduguri in 2009 in response to attacks on police stations, the BBC states.