Fresh attacks kill nine in northern Nigeria as police hunt Boko Haram bombers

Telegraph (UK)

22 January 2012

Fresh attacks kill nine in northern Nigeria as police hunt Boko Haram bombers

Muslim gunmen killed nine people and wounded 12 others in the latest round of religious violence to hit northern Nigeria, a community elder said. The attack, in the early hours of Sunday morning, came less than a day after Boko Haram, Nigeria’s Islamist separatist insurgents, said it carried out coordinated bombings that left as many as 160 people dead on Friday night. Bukata Zhyadi, traditional elder of a Christian ethnic group, said nine bodies had been found at dawn on Sunday in the town of Tafawa Balewa in Bauchi state.

“We are going around the town checking [for more],” he said. Twelve people were wounded, he said, adding that witnesses blamed the attack on a Muslim ethnic group.

Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria’s president, promised immediate action to find the men who ordered multiple blasts on Friday night in Kano, northern Nigeria’s main city.

Explosions struck two churches in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi on Sunday, witnesses said, destroying one of them completely.  Bauchi township resident Garbi Ali said he heard two explosions at around 2 a.m. on Sunday, before anyone would be likely to be in church, and went out to investigate.

Alli told Reuters that "One of the churches was at the railway line. They just destroyed the gate. But the other one at Fadama was completely destroyed and the roof collapsed."