Un ataque a la estación de autobuses en Abuya, Nigeria, deja al menos 71 muertos y 124 heridos

Por: Redacción / Sinembargo - abril 14 de 2014 - 8:25



Por Dot Adeyemi

Abuya, 14 abr (EFE).- Al menos 71 personas murieron hoy y 124 resultaron heridas en un ataque con bomba que causó varias explosiones en una de las principales estaciones de autobuses de Abuya, la capital de Nigeria, donde se desató el pánico entre los numerosos pasajeros que abarrotaban el lugar a hora punta.

Tras visitar la estación atacada, el presidente de Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, vinculó el atentado con la secta radical islámica Boko Haram, a la que se refirió como un “un revés temporal” que la nación debe superar.

El presidente, quien ordenó que se aumente la seguridad en la capital, también trasladó sus “sentidas condolencias” a las familias de las víctimas de este trágico suceso.

El atentado ocurrió sobre las 06.45 hora local (05:45 GMT), cuando la estación situada en el área de Nyanya, en las afueras de Abuya, estaba repleta de ciudadanos que se disponían a ir a sus puestos de trabajo.

Aunque en un primer momento algunos medios informaron de que los fallecidos podrían llegar a 200, el portavoz de la Policía, Frank Mba, confirmó en una rueda de prensa que fueron al menos 71 las víctimas mortales del ataque.

No obstante, Mba advirtió de que el número de fallecidos podría aumentar debido a la gravedad de las heridas de muchos supervivientes.

La explosión de la bomba sorprendió a un gran número de pasajeros justo en el momento en el que se disponían a subir a los autobuses estacionados en el aparcamiento de este centro de transporte.

Inmediatamente después, la confusión se adueñó del lugar, donde la gente empezó a correr presa del pánico entre los cuerpos mutilados que se amontonaban en el suelo envueltos de sangre.

Además, tras estallar la bomba, se produjeron otras explosiones secundarias en los depósitos de combustible de los vehículos aparcados en la zona.

La fuerte magnitud de la explosión abrió un gran agujero de más de un metro de profundidad, según algunos testigos.

Las ambulancias transportaron a los heridos a los hospitales cercanos y los equipos de rescate se centraron en recuperar los cadáveres.

Un total de 23 cuerpos fueron trasladados a la morgue del Asokoro District Hospital, donde también fueron atendidas 25 personas, informaron las televisiones locales.

“El presidente Jonathan dirige los servicios médicos, que están haciendo todo lo posible para salvar las vidas de los heridos en el atentado de Nyanya”, comentó el portavoz de la Presidencia nigeriana, Reuben Abati, en su perfil de la red social Twitter.

Los bomberos sofocaron el fuego, aunque horas después aún se podía ver una gran columna de humo y los destrozos provocados en decenas de vehículos.

Pese a que Nigeria mantiene una ofensiva antiterrorista en los estados de Yobe, Borno y Adamawa, en el noreste del país (todos ellos bajo estado de excepción), los ataques integristas no cesan en el país africano.

Desde que la Policía acabó en 2009 con el líder de Boko Haram, Mohamed Yusuf, los radicales mantienen una sangrienta campaña que ha causado más de 3.000 muertos.

Boko Haram, que significa en lenguas locales “la educación no islámica es pecado”, lucha por imponer la “sharía” o ley islámica en Nigeria, de mayoría musulmana en el norte y predominantemente cristiana en el sur.

Este mismo grupo causó ayer al menos 98 muertos en ataques a tres localidades del norte de Nigeria, en el estado de Borno, donde la violencia ha forzado a muchos residentes de las comunidades locales a huir a la capital estatal, Maiduguri.

Con unos 170 millones de habitantes integrados en más de 200 grupos tribales, Nigeria, el país más poblado de África, sufre múltiples tensiones por sus profundas diferencias políticas, socioeconómicas, religiosas y territoriales. EFE

Armed men kidnap schoolgirls in Nigeria
More than 100 students of secondary school in Chibok in Borno state abducted, a day after a deadly bombing in Abuja.
Last updated: 15 Apr 2014 23:43
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Heavily armed men have kidnapped more than 100 girls from a secondary school in northeast Nigeria's Borno state and torched the surrounding town, a day after a deadly bombing in the African state's capital.

No one claimed responsibility for Tuesday's kidnapping, but fingers were pointed at fighters of the armed group Boko Haram, which means "Western education is forbidden".

The attackers killed a soldier and police officer guarding the school, then took off with at least 100 students, a State Security Service official said.

Some of the girls managed to escape from the back of an open lorry, other officials said.

"Many girls were abducted by the rampaging gunmen who stormed the school in a convoy of vehicles," Emmanuel Sam, an education official in the town of Chibok, where the attack took place, told AFP news agency.

He spoke from Borno's capital Maiduguri where he said he fled after the attack at the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok.

The attackers came "in trucks and on motorcycles and headed to the school", where they overpowered soldiers deployed to guard it, a witness who requested anonymity said.

Soldiers 'subdued'

The witness said soldiers had been deployed to provide extra security in advance of yearly exams, but the attackers "subdued the soldiers and took the girls away".

A local government official said he did not know how many of the girls had escaped but that "many" have walked through the bushes and back to Chibok.

The girls were piled into the back of an open lorry and, as it was travelling, some grabbed at low-hanging branches to swing off while others jumped off the slow-moving vehicle, he said.
Boko Haram has repeatedly attacked schools in the northeast during an insurgency that has killed thousands since 2009.

In an attack earlier this year in Borno, witnesses said Boko Haram fighters surrounded a girls' school, forced the students to leave and ordered them to immediately return to their villages.

The fighters are known to be abducting girls to use as cooks and sex slaves.

At least 71 people were killed in Abuja's outskirts on Monday, when a bomb exploded at a packed bus station, marking the deadliest attack in the federal capital.

Boko Haram wants to establish a state ruling by Islamic law in the northeast. Nigeria's Muslims mainly live in the north while Christians mostly in the south.

The Abuja explosion raised concerns about the country's ability to ward off frequent attacks during the World Economic Forum on Africa scheduled next month in the capital.

Following the blast, Nigeria has pledged to deploy more than 6,000 police and soldiers to protect African heads of state and business leaders attending the May 7-9 event, based on the flagship gatherings in Davos, Switzerland.

Africa's top oil producer wants to highlight its newly acquired status as the largest economy on the continent.

Monday's attack also added pressure on President Goodluck Jonathan in the run-up to February's elections.

Africa
Forest searched for abducted Nigerian girls
Search for over 100 schoolgirls taken on Monday follows army's retraction of statement saying it had freed most of them.
Last updated: 18 Apr 2014 07:11


The search for more than 100 school girls abducted in the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok is continuing two days after the military mistakenly announced it had freed nearly all of them from their kidnappers.

The AP news agency reported on Friday that the search was being conducted in the Sambisa Forest, known to be a hiding place for fighters from Boko Haram, a group blamed for widespread attacks that have left hundreds dead in recent months.

Six more girls had managed to escape their captors on their own, bringing to 20 the number that are free, the news agency reported, citing the education commissioner of Borno state, Musa Inuwo Kubo.

Kubo spoke at a news conference where parents of the kidnapped students expressed their anguish over a Defence Ministry statement claiming to have freed all but eight of the students by Wednesday night.

"The military had really gladdened our hearts. But now we are left in confusion," said Lydia Ibrahim, whose three cousins are among the kidnapped. "These girls are innocent, we plead that government should do all that they can to help us."

Major-General Chris Olukolade, the Defense Ministry spokesman, had said in a statement late on Wednesday that the principal of the school from which the young women were abducted had confirmed that all but eight were freed.

On Thursday night, Olukolade retracted his statement, which he said had been based on a field report indicating "a major breakthrough".

He added: "There is indeed no reason to play politics with the precious lives of the students. The number of those still missing is not the issue now as the life of every Nigerian is very precious."

Statement contradicted

The military's initial statement had already been queried by Asabe Kwambura, the principal of the girls' school.

She said only 14 of those kidnapped by gunmen before dawn on Tuesday had returned to Chibok.

"Up till now we are still waiting and praying for the safe return of the students ... the security people, especially the vigilantes and the well-meaning volunteers of Gwoza are still out searching for them," said Kwambura.

"The military people, too, are in the bush searching".

Four of those that had returned had jumped from the back of a truck soon after the abductions, while 10 escaped into the bush when their abductors asked them to cook a meal, she added.

Kubo said six more girls had returned home - two found wandering in the forest by soldiers and four who had made their way to a village near where they were being held.

A town official said people angry at the military's false statement and failure to find the abductees were taking the initiative and searching the forest themselves.

Monday's mass abduction of the schoolgirls, aged between 15 and 18, has shocked Nigeria, a nation growing increasingly inured to tales of horror from its bloody insurgency in the northeast, the Reuters news agency reported.
Source:
Agencies

Nigeria leader in abducted schoolgirls plea
President Goodluck Jonathan seeks international help to find 276 girls kidnapped by suspected Boko Haram fighters.
Last updated: 05 May 2014 06:56


Nigeria's President has appealed for international help to find, and ensure the release of, 276 schoolgirls abducted by suspected Boko Haram fighters, amid criticism over government inaction.

Goodluck Jonathan said on Sunday that he had sought help from the US President Barack Obama, and also approached other world powers including Britain, France and China for help on security issues.

"This is a trying time for this country... it is painful," he said, and pleaded for the cooperation of parents, guardians and the local communities in the rescue efforts.

"We will get over our (security) challenge," he stated, adding that Nigerians were "justified if they expressed their anger against government" over the perceived slowness in rescuing the girls who were kidnapped from their hostel in Chibok town, in northeast Borno state, on April 14.

He assured that the "disappearance" of the girls would not be another global "mystery" in reference to the missing Malaysian passenger jet that has not been found despite the vast multi-national search deployed.

Jonathan's meeting over Saturday night was the first time the president had met with all stakeholders, including the principal of the Chibok Government Girls Secondary School in northeastern Nigeria where the girls and young women were kidnapped in a pre-dawn raid April 15, presidential adviser Reuben Abati told reporters.

'Sold into marriage'

Nigerians' anger at the failure to rescue the students, and protest marches last week in major Nigerian cities as well as New York City, have spurred to action Jonathan's government, which many see as uncaring of the girls' plight.

Unverified reports suggested that some of the girls were sold into marriagewith their abductors for $12.
Nii Akuteh : 'Boko Haram are the prime suspects'

Some of the girls were taken across Nigeria's borders to Cameroon and Chad, parents said last week, quoting villagers.

Anguished parents in Chibok town, who have lost confidence in the government and military, have been begging for international help.

On Saturday, US Secretary of State John Kerry promised help. "The kidnapping of hundreds of children by Boko Haram is an unconscionable crime, and we will do everything possible to support the Nigerian government to return these young women to their homes and to hold the perpetrators to justice," Kerry said from Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The mass kidnapping is one of the most shocking attacks in Boko Haram's five-year offensive, which has killed thousands across the north and centre of the country, including 1,500 people this year alone.

Boko Haram, an armed group whose name means "Western education is sinful", is fighting what it calls Western influence and wants to form an Islamic state in Africa's largest oil producer country.

MacJohn Nwaobila on Boko Haram abductions
The minister of education responds to criticism after hundreds of schoolgirls were kidnapped by the armed group.
Talk to Al Jazeera Last updated: 03 May 2014 10:10


Getting an education in Nigeria is dangerous. Recently, more than 200 girls were abducted from a school in the northeastern state of Borno by insurgents. The daring raid is believed to have been carried out by an Islamic rebel group called Boko Haram - translated, the name means "Western education is sinful".

Since their emergence in 2010, the rebels have waged a violent campaign aimed at establishing a state governed by sharia law, with many of their victims being teachers and students.

The insurgents have their own ways of operating, and one challenge we have is that they are faceless. If you are dealing with somebody you know one-on-one you can talk, but it created that problem when you are dealing with faceless people.

- MacJohn Nwaobila, Nigeria's permanent education secretary

Amnesty International reports that in northern Nigeria last year, Boko Haram killed some 70 teachers and more than 100 students, while over 100 schools were either closed or burnt down.

Teachers have had to flee for their lives and thousands of children have been forced out of schools. The families of the missing girls are distraught, and the public has criticised the government for not doing enough to rescue the girls or hunt down their kidnappers.

The insurgency has further fractured an already crippled schooling system in northern Nigeria, where girls in particular are often robbed of their right to an education.

The region has the lowest rate of female student enrolment in the country, and girls are frequently married off at a much younger age than in other parts of the country.

Nigeria's Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Education, Dr MacJohn Nwaobila, is feeling international pressure as he attends the Global Partnership for Education summit in Doha.

So what is next for Nigeria? Is negotiation with the rebel group still possible? And what is the future of the country's educational system?

With the spotlight on his government's efforts to protect the country's school children, MacJohn Nwaobila sits down and talks to Al Jazeera.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzNeadAezJ4



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrfWS_vL0D4


Jijos de la reputisima

US joins search for abducted Nigerian girls
Military and law enforcement experts sent to Nigeria to help find nearly 300 girls and women abducted by Boko Haram.

Last updated: 07 May 2014 10:08

The United States has sent a team of experts to Nigeria to help find nearly 300 girls and women abducted from a school last month by the armed group Boko Haram.

US President Barack Obama described the kidnapping of the girls as "heartbreaking" and "outrageous", soon after residents said the group had seized eight more girls, aged between 12 and 15, again in the embattled northeast.

Obama urged global action against Boko Haram and confirmed Nigerian leaders had accepted an offer to deploy US personnel there.
The number of girls taken int he latest kidnapping has risen to 11, an official in the restive northeast said on Wednesday.

Residents initially said eight girls were taken when gunmen stormed a village in the Gwoza area of Borno state late on Sunday.

Gwoza official Hamba Tada told AFP the attackers snatched three more girls in a neighbouring village.

"After leaving Warabe the gunmen stormed the Wala village, which is five kilometres (three miles) away and abducted three more girls," he told AFP, referring to the two villages.
Al Jazeera's Yvonne Ndege reports from Abuja where hundreds rallied in support of the missing girls.

The first group of girls was taken three weeks ago, and concerns have been mounting about their fate after Boko Haram chief Abubakar Shekau claimed responsibility in a video, saying his group was holding the schoolgirls as "slaves" and threatening to "sell them in the market".

Shekau criticised the female students for being taught "western education", which the Islamic group is avidly against. He also warned that his group planned to attack more schools and abduct more people.

Speaking to US broadcaster ABC, Obama said: "It's a heartbreaking situation, outrageous situation."

"This may be the event that helps to mobilise the entire international community to finally do something against this horrendous organisation that's perpetrated such a terrible crime," he added.

The team sent to Nigeria consists of "military, law enforcement, and other agencies", Obama said, and will work to "identify where in fact these girls might be and provide them help".

He denounced Boko Haram as "one of the worst regional or local terrorist organisations".

US officials have voiced fears that those abducted, who are aged between 16 and 18, have already been smuggled into neighbouring countries, such as Chad and Cameroon. The governments of both denied those abducted were in their countries.

'Heinous people'

Their fate has sparked global outrage and may constitute a crime against humanity according to the UN.
Parents of those taken said Shekau's video had made an already horrifying situation even worse.

"All along, we have been imagining what could happen to our daughters in the hands of these heinous people," one mother, Lawal Zanna, told AFP news agency by phone from Chibok.

The latest kidnappings also took place in Borno state.

We have no security here. If the gunmen decide to pick our own girls, nobody can stop them.

- Warabe resident

Abdullahi Sani, a resident of Warabe, said gunmen had moved "door to door, looking for girls" late on Sunday.

"They forcefully took away eight girls between the ages of 12 and 15," he said, in an account confirmed by other witnesses.

He said the attackers did not kill anyone, which was "surprising", and suggested that abducting girls was the motive for the attack.

Another Warabe resident, Peter Gombo, told AFP that the military and police had not yet deployed to the area.

"We have no security here. If the gunmen decide to pick our own girls, nobody can stop them."

Though initially slow to emerge, global outrage has flared over the mass abduction in Chibok, where Boko Haram stormed their school and loaded the girls at gunpoint onto trucks.

Several managed to escape but over 220 girls are still being held, according to police, with other sources saying the number is closer to 300.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague called the kidnappings "disgusting".

Egypt's prestigious Islamic institute Al-Azhar, which runs the main Sunni Islamic university in the region, said harming the girls "completely contradicts the teachings of Islam".
Source:
AFP

El grupo radical islamista Boko Haram difunde VIDEO de niñas secuestradas; pide liberar presos a cambio de ellas

Por: Redacción / Sinembargo - mayo 12 de 2014 - 7:53
De revista, Mundo, TIEMPO REAL, Último minuto, Video - 4 comentarios


Maidiguri (Nigeria), 12 may (EFE).- El líder de la secta radical islámica Boko Haram, Abubakar Shekau, aseguró hoy que las más de 200 niñas secuestradas en el norte de Nigeria no recuperarán la libertad hasta que prisioneros miembros de ese grupo sean liberados.

En un vídeo difundido hoy por los medios locales, el líder de la secta, que reivindicó el secuestro de las niñas hace un mes en el estado norteño de Borno, señaló también que las chicas, en su mayoría cristianas, han sido convertidas al Islam.

Las imágenes, divulgadas en Maidiguri, capital de Borno, muestran a un centenar de niñas aparentemente recitando fragmentos del Corán y haciendo declaraciones de fe, ataviadas con el hiyab (vestimenta femenina islámica) y rodeadas de vegetación.

Shekau manifestó su intención de negociar el intercambio de las menores, pero sólo a cambio de la puesta en libertad de insurgentes de Boko Haram arrestados por las fuerzas de seguridad nigerianas.

Las niñas fueron secuestradas el pasado 14 de abril de una escuela de secundaria en Chibok, en Borno, bastión del grupo fundamentalista.

Boko Haram, que significa en lenguas locales “la educación no islámica es pecado”, lucha por imponer la “sharía” o ley islámica en Nigeria, país de mayoría musulmana en el norte y predominantemente cristiana en el sur.

Desde que la Policía acabó en 2009 con el entonces líder de Boko Haram, Mohamed Yusuf, los radicales mantienen una sangrienta campaña que ha causado más de 3.000 muertos.

Con unos 170 millones de habitantes integrados en más de 200 grupos tribales, Nigeria, el país más poblado de África, sufre múltiples tensiones por sus profundas diferencias políticas, religiosas y territoriales. EFE
http://www.sinembargo.mx/12-05-2014/989816

Nigeria anuncia un acuerdo con Boko Haram para liberar a las niñas
Anuncia un acuerdo de alto el fuego y la liberación de las alumnas secuestradas en abril

Secuestradas...¿y olvidadas?

Agencias Abuja 17 OCT 2014 - 17:44 CEST
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Un hombre reclama la liberación de las alumnas secuestradasen abril, el 14 de octubre en Abuya, Nigeria. / O. Gbemiga (AP)
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El Gobierno de Nigeria y el grupo terrorista Boko Haram acordaron este viernes un alto el fuego y la inminente liberación de las más de 200 niñas secuestradas hace seis meses en el pueblo de Chibok, según anunció el jefe del Estado Mayor, Alex Badeh.

Por ahora no han trascendido detalles sobre el supuesto acuerdo pero el jefe del Estado Mayor ha anunciado que sus soldados cumplirán con el pacto alcanzado. Fuentes de seguridad nigerianas citadas por la agencia de noticias Reuters confirman que el Gobierno ha estado negociando con la milicia islamista durante tres días en Yamena (Chad), en las que asistieron el jefe de Gabinete de la Presidencia, Hassan Tukur, funcionarios del Gobierno del Chad y representantes de Boko Haram.
más información

VÍDEO Reaparece en un vídeo el supuesto líder del grupo Boko Haram
Los yihadistas de Boko Haram continúan su avance en Nigeria

Un asistente del presidente, Hassan Tukur, ha declarado al canal BBC que tras un mes de contactos, Boko Haram anunció el jueves un cese de hostilidades unilateral, y que el Gobierno respondió este viernes. "Boko Haram nos ha asegurado que tienen a las niñas [secuestradas] y que las van a liberar", asegura Tukur, que añade que los detalles sobre la liberación se ultimarán en otra reunión en la capital de Chad la próxima semana.

El Gobierno ha anunciado en ocasiones anteriores la liberación de las alumnas secuestradas en abril y varias negociaciones han fracasado en el pasado debido a la presencia de varias facciones dentro del grupo terrorista, según destaca Reuters. El Gobierno ha estado negociando con Danladi Ahmadu, autodenominado secretario general, pero no está claro si pertenece a la misma facción que el líder Abubakr Shekau.

El terrorismo de Boko Haram - cuyo nombre en lengua hausa se puede traducir por “la educación no islámica es pecado” - ha llevado al Gobierno a extender el estado de emergencia en los Estados norteños de Borno, Adawama y Yobe desde mayo de 2013. En lo que va de año, la milicia islamista ha asesinado a cerca de 3.000 personas, según datos de Human Rights Watch, y el Gobierno nigeriano cifra las muertes en 12.000 desde 2009. Ese año, la milicia recrudeció su campaña violenta después de que el fundador de la secta, Mohamed Yusuf, muriera al estar bajo custodia policial. El grupo islamista, que pretende imponer la ley islámica (sharia) en un país de mayoría musulmana en el norte y de predominancia cristiana en el sur, captó la atención e indignación internacional tras el secuestró a más de 200 alumnas en abril. El nuevo líder, Abubakr Shekau, proclamó un califato en el noreste después de tomar el control de la localidad de Gwoza, fronteriza con Camerún.

Las niñas secuestradas por Boko Haram "se casaron"
BBC
BBC Mundo hace 1 día
El secuestro de las jóvenes desató una campaña internacional.

El grupo militante islamista Boko Haram negó este viernes en un video que haya firmado un acuerdo de cese el fuego con el gobierno nigeriano.

Además, el portavoz del grupo que aparece en el video informó que las más de 200 niñas secuestradas el pasado abril se han convertido al Islam y se han casado.

A pesar de la campaña internacional que se inició para exigir su liberación y el clamor de sus familiares, este mes se cumplió medio año desde el secuestro de las jóvenes sin noticias de ellas.

Las niñas, de entre 16 y 18 años, fueron secuestradas en abril en la aldea de Chibok, en el noreste de Nigeria, y se las llevaron por la fuerza mientras dormían en un internado escolar.

El pasado 17 de octubre, el gobierno de Nigeria anunció que acordó un cese el fuego con Boko Haram, que se esperaba que condujese a la liberación de las más de 200 escolares secuestradas.