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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Kano terror survivors relive ordeal |
| 2013-03-20 |
| [Guardian Ng] IT was a moment of outrage and shock yesterday as the survivors of the bomb explosion in Kano that claimed several lives relived their ordeal. The casualty figure rose to 22 Tuesday. Witnesses told the Agence France Presse (AFP) that they heard multiple blasts and saw wounded victims in bloodied clothes fleeing the area as authorities cordoned the scene. "I was boarding the bus to Lagos when I heard a huge explosion," Abdulaziz Baban-Lamma, a 47-year-old trader, told AFP from his hospital bed. The blast left him with severe injuries to his abdomen and other survivors ran to assist him when they saw his condition, he said. He later underwent emergency surgery. "May Allah curse whoever was behind the act," he said. Magawata Goje, 45, was selling dried meat at the station when the bomb went off. "Something sharp hit me under my right ear," he said. "Blood gushed out and I was drenched in my blood." When he regained consciousness, "I could see many people burnt to death," he said. Emmanuel Bassey, a 37-year-old bus company employee with burns across his body, said the bombers slammed into one of the buses at high speed. The bus station targeted on Monday primarily services passengers heading to the southern part of the country. It was also attacked in January last year in a blast that wounded several people. Authorities have not said who was behind the bombing and there has been no claim of responsibility, but it was similar to previous attacks by Boko Haram. The worsening insecurity Tuesday, again, claimed the lives of two soldiers and a policeman in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital. This development came a day after gunmen attacked three schools and killed three teachers in the same state. Tuesday's tragedy occurred when suspected terrorists bombed the patrol vehicle of the Joint Task Force (JTF) at the Roundabout of Kashim Ibrahim Way at noon, killing two soldiers, a policeman and injuring four soldiers. The blast, according to an eyewitness, Aisami Yerima, hit the patrol vehicle of JTF while driving at the roundabout before other soldiers and policemen rushed to the scene to evacuate the victims. Yerima, however, told The Guardian that he could not say whether the occupants were killed or not, but the blast ripped the vehicle into pieces, while passersby scampered for safety into various directions. Five minutes after the blast, the entire area wherein lie First Bank, United Bank of Africa (UBA) and Union Bank, was cordoned by the JTF. Vehicles and pedestrians were forced and directed by soldiers to take the Post Office Area and Government Reservation Area (GRA) roads of Maiduguri. In a telephone interview, the spokesman of JTF, Lt.-Col. Sagir Musa, said that the blast was targeted at the patrol vehicle of JTF at First Bank Roundabout by noon Tuesday. He said the casualties of the blast could not be ascertained as the details on death and injuries were yet to be collated from the scene of the blast. Musa said: "As soon as we collated all the details of the blast casualties, the media will be communicated through their respective e-mails." |
| Posted by:Fred |