Boko Haram Claims Responsibility For Abuja Bomb Blast

The leader of Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, claimed responsibility for a bombing in Abuja that killed at least 75 people in Abuja. Agence France-Presse last Sunday reports that Shekau made the claim in a video message it obtained on Saturday.

“We are the ones that carried out the attack in Abuja,” Shekau said in the 28-minute video, referring to the deadly attack in Nigeria’s capital which targeted a bus station packed with morning commuters.

Seated with a Kalashnikov resting on his left shoulder and dressed in military uniform, the insurgent commander spoke in both Arabic and the Hausa language that is dominant in northern Nigeria.

AFP states it got the Boko Haram video message in a manner consistent with previous videos it received from sect.

The bombing at the Nyanya bus terminal on the outskirts of Abuja was the first major attack in the capital in two years.

Most of the insurgents’ violence in recent months had been concentrated in the group’s remote north-eastern stronghold, where the military is waging an 11-month-old offensive.

Shekau indicated that Boko Haram had fighters based in the capital.

“We are in your city,” he said, addressing Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan.

Shekau has been declared a global terrorist by the US, which has put a $7m bounty on his head.

Hours after the Abuja bombing, gunmen stormed a girls’ school in Borno and kidnapped 129 students, an attack also blamed on Boko Haram that has sparked global outrage.

Twenty-four of the girls have escaped so far, according to officials, and the military has said it has launched a major search and rescue operation.

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