At least 49 killed in Boko Haram suicide attacks in Nigeria

At least 49 killed in Boko Haram suicide attacks in Nigeria

PanARMENIAN.Net - At least 34 people were killed and another 80 wounded in Yola, a town packed with refugees from Nigeria's Islamic uprising, emergency officials said Wednesday, November 18, the Associated Press reports.

Later Wednesday, two more suicide bombers killed at least 15 people in the northern city of Kano and injured 53, according to police. Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency said more than 100 were wounded.

The blasts were the latest by Boko Haram, Nigeria's home-grown extremists whose 6-year insurgency has killed 20,000 and forced 2.3 million to flee their homes.

Boko Haram was named Wednesday as the world's most deadly extremist group in the Global Terrorism Index. Deaths attributed to Boko Haram increased by 317 percent in 2014 to 6,644 compared to 6,073 blamed on the Islamic State group.

Boko Haram pledged allegiance to IS in March and calls itself that group's West Africa Province.

Wednesday's explosions came as President Muhammadu Buhari pressed his campaign against Nigeria's endemic corruption, blamed for hampering the fight against the insurgents. Buhari accused his predecessor's national security adviser of stealing billions of dollars meant to buy weapons to fight Boko Haram, when soldiers had just a few bullets and the Islamic extremists were rampaging across northeast Nigeria.

Critics long have blamed corruption for the military's failures, asking how the insurgents can be better armed than Nigerian soldiers despite an annual defense budget of more than $5 billion, supplemented last year by a loan of $1 billion.

 Top stories
Authorities said a total of 192 Azerbaijani troops were killed and 511 were wounded during Azerbaijan’s offensive.
In 2023, the Azerbaijani government will increase the country’s defense budget by more than 1.1 billion manats ($650 million).
The bill, published on Monday, is designed to "eliminate the shortcomings of an unreasonably broad interpretation of the key concept of "compatriot".
The earthquake caused a temporary blackout, damaged many buildings and closed a number of rural roads.
Partner news
---