This is very sad. Praying for our brothers and sisters out there. I
hope they come out OK.

-Laye
================================================================

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gOTyKRMIh695bDlsnpuxCVTWxYWA?docId=25af455aab4440aeb6acaeccf757547b

16 killed in bombing on UN building in Nigeria

By BASHIR ADIGUN, Associated Press – 4 hours ago

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A car laden with explosives rammed through two
gates and blew up at the United Nations' offices in Nigeria's capital
Friday, killing at least 16 people and shattering part of the concrete
structure.

The brazen attack, carried out as the U.N. offices teemed with staff,
comes as Africa's most populous nation faces the growing threat of
both homegrown and international terrorism. Militants from a radical
Muslim sect from northeast Nigeria have carried out attacks in the
country's capital, though never on a foreign target. Unrest in the
country's oil-rich Niger Delta in the south has also spawned a violent
militant group.

Witnesses told The Associated Press that a sedan rammed through two
separate gates at the U.N. compound as guards tried to stop the
vehicle. The suicide bomber inside crashed the car into the main
reception area and detonated the explosives, inflicting the most
damage possible, a spokesman for the Nigerian National Emergency
Management Agency said.

"I saw scattered bodies," said Michael Ofilaje, a UNICEF worker at the
building, which he said shook with the explosion. "Many people are
dead."

The Nigerian Red Cross reported at least 16 people died in the attack,
with at least 11 others injured, said Umar Mairiga, the organization's
disaster management director. Nigerian Health Minister Mohammad Ali
Pate made a public appeal for blood donation on the widely listened-to
BBC Hausa language service, saying there were at least 60 people
injured at the National Hospital in Abuja.

The building houses about 400 employees of the U.N. in Nigeria,
including the majority of its offices. Authorities were still trying
to account for everyone in the building at the time of the blast.

"We do not yet have precise casualty figures but they are likely to be
considerable," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told journalists in
New York. "A number of people are dead; many more are wounded."

The building, located in the same neighborhood as the U.S. embassy and
other diplomatic posts in Abuja, houses offices of a number of U.N.
agencies including the U.N. Development Program, UNICEF and the U.N.
Population Fund.

The explosion punched a huge hole in the building. Workers brought
three large cranes to the site within hours of the attack, trying to
pull away the concrete and rubble to find survivors. Others at the
site stood around, stunned, as medical workers began carrying out what
appeared to be the dead.

"This is getting out of hand," said a U.N. staffer who identified
himself as Bodunrin. "If they can get into the U.N. House, they can
reach anywhere."

Ali Tikko, who was in a building 100 yards (meters) from the site of
the blast when it occurred said, "I heard one big boom."

"I see a number of people lying on the floor — at least four or five.
I cannot see if they are dead. There are a lot of security around,"
Tikko said by telephone.

Local police spokesman Jimoh Moshood said police are investigating. In
a statement, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's office called the
attack "barbaric, senseless and cowardly." The statement also promised
to increase security in the nation's capital.

"President Jonathan reaffirms the federal government's total
commitment to vigorously combat the incursion of all forms of
terrorism into Nigeria, and wishes to reassure all Nigerians and the
international community that his administration will spare no effort
to bring the perpetrators to justice," the statement read.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack. Oil-rich
Nigeria faces terrorism threats on multiple fronts.

Nigeria, a nation of 150 million, is split between a largely Christian
south and Muslim north. In recent months, the country has faced an
increasing threat from a radical Muslim sect called Boko Haram, which
wants to implement a strict version of Shariah law in the nation. The
sect has carried out assassinations and bombings, including the June
car bombing in Abuja of the national headquarters of Nigeria's federal
police that killed at least two people.

Earlier this month, the commander for U.S. military operations in
Africa said Boko Haram may be trying to link with two al-Qaida-linked
groups in other African countries to mount joint attacks in Nigeria.

Gen. Carter Ham told AP on Aug. 17 during a visit to Nigeria that
"multiple sources" indicate Boko Haram made contacts with al-Qaida in
the Islamic Maghreb, which operates in northwest Africa, and with
al-Shabab in Somalia.

"I think it would be the most dangerous thing to happen not only to
the Africans, but to us as well," Carter said.

Last year, a militant group from the country's oil patch, the Niger
Delta, blew up car bombs in the capital during Nigeria's 50th
independence anniversary ceremony, killing at least 12. The militant
group did not immediately respond to an AP request for comment Friday.

Associated Press writers Jon Gambrell and Yinka Ibukun in Lagos,
Nigeria, Michelle Faul in Johannesburg, Rukmini Callimachi in Dakar,
Senegal and Edith M. Lederer in New York contributed to this report.

-- 
-Laye
==============================
"With fair speech thou might have thy will,
With it thou might thy self spoil."
--The R.M

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