A powerful blast, late Tuesday, destroyed a police station in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, a senior police official said, the latest in a series of blasts in the country’s second biggest city since Islamist insurgents stepped up their campaign there.
“The explosives also affected some surrounding buildings. It was a big bang. For now, I cannot say how many of our men are affected or whether the bomber died,” the police source said.
In a morale boosting gesture, the United States is urging Nigerians to stand united against “enemies of civility and peace” in the radical Muslim sect Boko Haram.
U.S. counter-terrorism officials are in Nigeria after attacks Friday killed at least 185 people in the northern city of Kano.
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland says U.S. counter-terrorism officials are meeting with Nigerian colleagues as part of a regional security cooperation working group.
“Obviously we were comparing analyses of the threat, and we were talking about how we might strengthen cooperation so that we can better help the Nigerian government get its arms around Boko Haram and comparing analysis how we might do that together,” said Nuland.
Nuland says the President Barack Obama administration condemns the terrorist attacks in Bauchi State and Kano and is urging Nigerians to use their ethnic and religious diversity as a source of strength against those who are trying to divide the country.
“We are also sending a message very strongly to all people of Nigeria to settle their issues peacefully and respectfully of each other’s differences,” she added.
Nuland says the Obama administration backs a full investigation into violence across northern states.
“Anybody involved in violence, instability against the Nigerian state, against innocent civilians needs to be brought to justice,” Nuland said, adding: “These are precisely the kinds of issues that we are in discussion with the Nigerian government about. They themselves are trying to get their arms around how they can do more, how they can provide greater peace and stability and calm.”
Critics of the government’s military approach to Boko Haram say President Jonathan should focus more on the underlying economic and social causes of the violence.
Nuland says Washington is working with Nigerian leaders and others in the international community to promote greater economic development and long-term growth throughout northern Nigeria.
Islamist sect Boko Haram claimed responsibility for a coordinated series of gun and bomb attacks in Kano on Friday that killed 186 people in their deadliest strike yet.
Several newspapers report that the attacks revealed glaring weaknesses in Kano’s security setup.
Days after the radical Islamic sect staged a coordinated series of attacks in Kano, its citizens are struggling to understand how the city’s security failed so badly.
The picture beginning to emerge is one of hundreds of Boko Haram fighters acting with military precision, simultaneously storming police stations and other government buildings.
The attacks began after Friday prayers in the ancient Muslim commercial center.
Reporter Salisu Fage of the Leadership newspaper in Kano says the ease with which the attackers overwhelmed the police has left many citizens feeling defenseless.
“Certainly everybody is surprised at the kind of sophistication they have because even the police couldn’t have the weapons that can fight back,” said Fage, adding: “People are wondering from where and how they are getting their weapons and the kind of training they are having.”
Police officials have been conspicuously silent since the attacks, declining interview requests and keeping cell phones switched off.
Yunus Zakaria Ya’u of Kano’s Centre for Information Technology and Development says officers who normally wear uniforms have switched to plain clothes to avoid notice by the unseen enemy.
“There is less visibility of police on the streets, I guess it is largely strategic,” said Ya’u, adding: “They probably are using plain clothes since the uniform has become the target of the Boko Haram.”
Fage says the city’s 8,300 strong police force is insufficient to provide security for 14 million residents.
He says Friday’s failure has sent morale among officers to a new low.
“The police have been devastated by the series of attacks,” added Fage. “It affected their psychology, affected their morale, and it must have a serious impact on their ability to come up with a satisfactory explanation.”
The new focus on Kano, an ancient city once at the heart of caravan routes connecting Africa’s interior with the Mediterranean, underscores the sect’s growing ambition.
Gunfire was also heard there early Tuesday, witnesses said.
Meanwhile, Nigerian forces have arrested 158 suspected members of the Islamist Boko Haram organisation in raids in the northern city of Kano.
There were two casualties from Tuesday’s dawn raids, carried out by the Nigerian Joint Military Task Force.
One resident of Kano said officers had encircled a house where a Boko Haram suspect was believed to be hiding.
The shoot-out lasted several hours.
“They began shooting, and he fired back… This was followed by a barrage of gunfire by the security men,” Mohammed Maikubi Bala told AFP news agency.
A man and his wife were killed in the raid, residents said.
Attacks by Boko Haram killed close to 1,000 people last year, according to campaign groups Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Amnesty said the Nigerian government should do more to tackle the group.
“The Nigerian government has repeatedly failed to prevent, investigate, prosecute or punish these acts,” it said.
The key suspect in a Christmas Day bombing on a Catholic church – believed to be a member of the Islamist sect Boko Haram – escaped from police custody earlier this month.
At least 40 people died in that attack.
A top African Union official warned that the radical sect was escalating its activities.
“The possibility of this group expanding its activities into the neighbouring countries, deep into the Central African region should not be discarded,” said Francisco Caetano Jose Madeira, in charge of counter terrorism co-operation for the AU.