Nigeria Suicide Blast Kills Five

Five people were killed in a bomb blast on Sunday night in northern Nigerian city of Kano , police said. The explosion was caused by a bomb in a car in Gold Coast Street in the Sabon Gari or “foreign quarter” of the North’s biggest city. The street full of pubs and bars is an area inhabited mainly by Christians.

The police said that the victims include “a suicide bomber and a girl of about twelve”. According to the witnesses, there was a loud blast that could be heard from several miles away and lots of smoke with the ambulances rushing people to the hospital. Even though no immediate responsibility was claimed, the militant group Boko Haram is being blamed for the attack. The group has been carrying out repeated attacks in the Kano state and other areas of northern Nigeria.

The suicide bomb blast comes amidst the continued search for more than 200 girls, including Muslims and Christians, abducted from school on 14 April in the north-east Nigerian town of Chibok in Borno state. Boko Haram had released a video last week showing more than 100 of the girls and offering an exchange for prisoners.   The row between the group and the Nigerian government continues. The leaders met in Paris to take coordinated action against Boko Haram’s insurgency.

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