15 people dead as bomb blast rocks Abuja

Multiple bomb blasts – including a suicide attack on a police station – have killed at least 15 people in Nigeria’s capital.

A spokesman for the country's NEMA relief agency said the Friday-night blasts in Nyanya and Kuje – outlying regions of Nigeria’s federal capital area – had also injured 41 people.

He said two people died and 21 were injured in the Nyanya blast; 13 other people died in Kuje with 20 others sustaining injuries.

However, hospital sources in Abuja told Anadolu Agency that the number of casualties was higher, one pegging it at 27.

A police station in Kuje was among several locations struck in the latest attack, where a female suicide bomber detonated a bomb at the entrance of the security post.

Only the bomber died, according to a police source, who also claimed the blast was intended to cause confusion to allow attackers a free rein in the other areas.

Friday’s incident was the third major blast in Nyanya – a densely populated suburb – since Boko Haram extended its offensive beyond the northeast where the radicals’ insurgency has been most rooted.

Source: Bloom Gist, Agencies