KANO, JUNE 1, 2014
At
least 40 people were on Sunday killed in a bomb attack targeting fans
at a football match in Nigeria’s northeast, police told AFP.
“There
has been a bomb explosion at a football field this evening and so far
more than 40 people have been killed,” said a police officer in the town
of Mubi who requested anonymity.
The police officer said the bomb exploded at around 18:30 local time at the pitch in Mubi’s Kaban area.
It targeted fans who were trying to leave the field after watching a local club match.
The town has previously witnessed attacks by Boko Haram Islamists.
The policeman’s account was confirmed by a nurse at the Mubi General Hospital, who also requested anonymity.
It
was not immediately clear if players were among the casualties, but the
officer and the nurse said it appeared most of the victims were fans.
STATE OF EMERGENCY
Mubi is located in Adamawa state, one of three in the northeast which has been under a state of emergency for more than a year.
The military has been trying to crush Boko Haram’s five-year extremist uprising.
The area has witnessed fewer Boko Haram attacks compared to other parts of the northeast.
However, the town was the site of a horrific October 2012 massacre at a post-secondary technical college.
Scores of students were killed in their dormitories, with many having their throats slit.
Boko
Haram has carried out several attacks on targets it says are a product
of Western influence, including sports venues and schools teaching a
secular curriculum.
The group has killed thousands during its battle against the government since 2009.
GIRLS KIDNAPPED
The
conflict has received unprecedented global attention over the last six
weeks after the mass kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls by the
Islamist group.
The girls were seized on April 14, 2014 from Chibok in Borno state, which shares a border with Adamawa.
The eastern part of Nigeria has also witnessed sectarian violence at football pitches not thought to be linked to Boko Haram.
In
Taraba state, just south of Adamawa, scores of people were killed in
2013 in clashes in which supporters of a nominally Muslim club battled
mostly Christian fans of a rival club
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