82 KILLED IN PRESIDENT BUHARI’S FIRST WEEK IN OFFICE

Adamawa, Nigeria, 20 Sya’ban 1436/7 June 2015 (MINA) – The total number of people killed in suspected Boko Haram attacks during President Muhammadu Buhari’s first week in office is now 82.

The death toll from two blasts in northeast Nigeria rose to 35 on Friday. Rescue officials in the Adamawa state’s capital Yola said 31 people had been confirmed dead in the explosion that ripped through a market on Thursday, with another 38 wounded.

Two blasts rocked northeast Nigeria on Thursday, after new President Muhammadu Buhari urged closer regional cooperation to defeat Boko Haram, Elombah.com quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

A suicide bomber exploded a car at a checkpoint outside a military barracks and killed eight soldiers on Thursday, witnesses said of the latest of daily attacks blamed on Boko Haram in Nigeria’s northeastern city of Maiduguri.

Later, a second bomb exploded near the main market in Yola, the first such attack to hit the capital of neighboring Adamawa state, police and witnesses said. At least two people were killed, police Deputy Supt. Othman Abubakar said. Hospital workers said they were treating 30 injured.

The violence on Thursday came as Buhari ended his first foreign trip since taking office.

He visited Chad and Niger, which with Cameroon are Nigeria’s key allies in the battle against an Islamist uprising blamed for 15,000 deaths since 2009.

Buhari urged closer regional security cooperation, thanking troops from Nigeria’s neighbours for their efforts to date while demanding more action from a multi-national force battling the insurgents on the frontline.

He vowed to crush the Islamists when he was sworn in one week ago but the spate of bombings through his first week in office highlighted the severity of the challenge. (T/P001/R03)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)