Suicide Bomb at UN HQ in Nigeria

"Landep News"

Suicide Bomb at UN HQ in Nigeria

A car exploded on Friday at the United Nations headquarters in Nigerian capital Abuja, causing 19 people to die and the president of the country, Goodluck Jonathan, to visit the site of Saturday and promise that the problem of terrorism would be approached in Nigeria and that the fight against the Boko Haram radical group will be intensified.

Boko Haram (whose name translates “the Western ways are sinful”) is the main concern of the Nigerian state when it comes to security, and it is considered by the government as related to some similar organizations that profess the radical Islam.

The group has been claiming all kinds of attacks, especially in the northern part of the state, where the Muslim community lives. Boko Haram desires the institution of a sharia-governed state, with laws that would prohibit the consumption of alcohol and other Western habits considered by them as an attack on Islam. The attack on Friday is said to be the first one against foreign citizens.

Religious Distribution Map of Nigeria

Security measures were tightened on Saturday in Abuja, which is 880 kilometers from the megacity of Lagos. Soldiers were blocking highways and checking passing vehicles, and the UN building was cordoned by the secret police.

The UN agencies are completing the head count of their staff, and are attempting to find new places where they can carry on their job. The leaders of the UN missions said that even so the activity in Nigeria would continue.

The suicide attack on Friday is considered an attack on the central government staged by an organization which has strong ties with the al-Qaeda.

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, but the population is divided between large communities of Christians and Muslims.

In order to prevent the two communities from sinking into sectarian civil war, Nigeria has ensured a rotating political system that permits both communities to appoint the president of the country, each one at a time.

This precarious balance was broken when Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian, ran for another term in office, after executing the office of acting president following the death of the president. The Muslim accused the Christians that it was their term to have the president, which gave Boko Haram reasons to consider themselves motivated to push forward toward instituting a fundamental state in the Muslim part of Nigeria. There are rumors that there is even talk about separating from Nigeria and creating an entirely new state.

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