22 dead in suicide attack on Nigeria Muslim procession

KANO, Nigeria – The death toll in a suicide bombing on a Shia Muslim procession near the northern Nigerian city of Kano has risen to 22 after one more person was confirmed dead, one of the organizers said Saturday, November 28. 

“For now, we have 22 deaths following the death of one more person yesterday. Thirty-eight people have also been injured, two of whom have been discharged from the hospital,” Ali Kakaki told Agence France-Presse.

Kakaki said that, despite the attack on Friday, November 27, the Islamic Movement of Nigeria members had continued their march from Kano to Zaria in neighboring Kaduna state, where their leader Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky is based.

The march is to mark Ashura, which commemorates the death of Hussein, the grandson of the Prophet Mohammed.

“Following the attack, many more of our members have joined the procession,” Kakaki said, adding that they aimed to arrive at their destination next week.

Bomber clad in black

Friday’s attack took place in the village of Dakasoye, some 20 kilometers (13 miles) south of the city of Kano.

One of the procession’s organizers said a bomber clad in black ran into the crowd and detonated his explosives.

Boko Haram, the radical Sunni jihadists who want to create a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria, has previously been blamed for attacks on Shia Muslims in the region. 

Boko Haram, whose 6-year insurgency has left at least 17,000 people dead and made more than 2.6 million homeless, condemns Shias as heretics who should be killed.

The group has increasingly used suicide bombers against “soft” civilian targets since the start of a military offensive earlier this year that pushed them out of territory they controlled.

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has given his military commanders until next month to end the conflict but there are fears that suicide and bomb attacks may persist. – Rappler.com