By Mark Baber
June 20- Despite there being no immediate claim of responsibility, Boko Haram militants are almost certainly behind Wednesday’s bombing in northern Nigeria which targeted football fans watching Brazil playing Mexico, killing at least 14 people and injuring dozens including men, women and children.
The blast hit a big screen venue in the Nayi-Nama area of Damaturu on Tuesday night 15 minutes after the start of the game. The bomb appeared to have been hidden in a motorised rickshaw outside the Crossfire venue.
A source at the local hospital told AFP that 21 dead bodies and 27 injured victims from the blast, had arrived at the local Sani Abacha Specialist Hospital. According to the source “The victims are young men and children. They have burns, ruptured tissue and bone fractures.”
The Boko Haram cult has previously carried out a series of attacks on similar informal venues where people gather to watch football.
Boko Haram has been waging a brutal campaign of terrorism for the last five years in Northern Nigeria, and specialises in attacks aimed at killing and maiming defenceless civilians.
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau has preached against football describing it as a Western ploy to distract Muslims from their religion. However, antipathy to football is not universal amongst Jihadis and the large crowds of civilians at football matches may be attacked mainly due to being easy targets to kill large numbers of people.
Leading Islamist scholars confirm Boko Haram is a profoundly un-Islamic organisation whose actions, in the words of the secretary-general of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, “not only disavow their Islam, but their humanity.”
The UK Foreign Office has issued a warning to citizens in African countries where Boko Haram and Al Shabab have been active saying, “Previous terrorist attacks in the region have targeted places where football matches are being viewed.”
The bombing, coming in the wake of the kidnapping of 200 schoolgirls, is another shock to the world community. Writing on Twitter, Sepp Blatter, summed up the feelings of many: “Terrible to read of fatalities & injuries in Nigeria, where fans were watching the #WorldCup. Football should unite people, not divide them.”
An investigation is ongoing with an accurate casualty count and police assessment of what happened to be publicly announced after forensic experts have completed their work.