Motorcycle suicide attacks kill 11 in Nigeria

At least 11 people have been killed in a suicide attack on a police convoy in north-east Nigeria, a day after twin attacks killed at least 21 in other parts of the country.

According to the Associated Press, two motorcycle-riding suicide bombers drove into a convoy transporting Police Commissioner Mamma Sule to his offices in Taraba state’s capital city of Jalingo on Monday, and detonated their explosives.

Sule was not injured, but the blast caused huge damage to a roadside market and blew out the glass windows of the nearby finance ministry building.

At least 22 people were wounded in the attack, Red Cross officials told the BBC.

The motorcycle outrider for the commissioner’s convoy was among the dead, a witness told Reuters. No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.

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The attack comes after at least 16 people were killed in the northern city of Kano Sunday when a series of bombs went off at a Catholic church service at Bayero University.

Panicked worshippers were hit by gunfire as they fled the service by attackers who fled on motorcycles before security personnel arrived on the scene.

During a later attack in the north-east city of Maiduguri, gunmen opened fire at a chapel, killing five people, including a pastor preparing for Communion, witnesses told The Financial Times.

The Islamist extremist sect, Boko Haram, whose name means ‘Western education is forbidden’ and who want to establish Sharia in Nigeria, is suspected of carrying out the bombings.

Violent attacks carried out by the group – mainly in the north of the country – have killed more than 1,000 people since mid-2009.

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