At least 18 die in car bomb attack on Nigeria UN HQ

Reuters

26 August 2011

At least 18 die in car bomb attack on Nigeria UN HQ

ABUJA (Reuters) - A car bomb ripped through the United Nations' headquarters in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on Friday, killing at least 18 people, in an attack reminiscent of a June blast claimed by a local radical Islamist sect.

U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack. "We do not yet have precise casualty figures but they are likely to be considerable," he said, adding that the building housed 26 U.N. humanitarian and development agencies.

"This was an assault on those who devote their lives to helping others," Ban said in a statement to reporters. "We condemn this terrible act, utterly."