At least 38 killed in Nigeria car bomb attack

The bomb hit Kaduna near two churches where worshippers were attending an Easter Sunday service.

According to security forces, the a car carrying the explosives attempted to drive into the church compound, but was turned away by a security guard, and instead detonated nearby.

Abubakar Zakari Adamu, a spokesman for the Kaduna State Emergency Management Agency, said at least 38 people were killed in the blast, and about 40 people were seriously injured.

Authorities said they had no immediate suspects in the attack, but it is widely believed that radical Islamist group Boko Haram are likely behind it.

The incident is the latest of many attacks in the country – many of which have been carried out by Boko haram – which have intensified in the past few years.

Boko Haram has not claimed responsibility for this latest attack, but in targeting Christians, the strike resembled much of the recent violence blamed on the group, which has carried out scores of attacks across Nigeria‘s restive north.

Founded in 2002 by Mohammed Yusuf, Boko Haram wants to overthrow Nigeria’s government and impose a strict version of Islamic law.

Yusuf was shot dead by police while trying to escape from custody in 2009, but the group’s attacks have become increased in regularity.

On Monday, Boko Haram gunmen shot dead four people, including a seven-year-old girl during a failed attempt to kill her policeman father hours after group members killed three in a separate raid.

In a separate attack in the northeastern town of Dikwa on Monday, gunmen from the Islamist group killed a policeman, a civilian and a local politician in coordinated attacks.

Also on Monday, Nigeria’s Joint Security Task Force (JSTF) said it had killed three members of the Boko Haram sect and arrested two of them in Maiduguri.

Read more: West ignores Nigeria’s terrorists ‘at its peril’

Earlier this year, defence analyst Anthony Tucker-Jones wrote about the problems facing Nigeria’s JSTF in the fight against the growing strength – and resolve – of Boko Haram.

“Talk of a north-south/Muslim-Christian civil war in Nigeria may be premature, but Boko Haram is successfully capitalising on the sectarian tensions that beset the country.

Often dubbed the Nigerian Taliban this militant Islamist faction has been evolving into a highly effective terrorist organisation.

It has graduated from drive by shootings to large-scale suicide car bombings. In recent months the Nigerian military fought running gun battles with militants in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri.

While the Nigerian security forces have finally been goaded into action their operations have often fanned the flames amongst Nigeria’s disgruntled northern Muslim population.

Although the Nigerian Army has extensive peacekeeping experience in support of UN operations, it is much less successful at home.

With about 60,000 troops under arms, the best equipped formations are the Brigade of Guards based in Abuja and two mechanised infantry divisions.

The US is the largest foreign investor in Nigeria, so has the most to lose should the country succumb to the escalating anarchy.“

Timeline of recent attacks by Boko Haram

26 August, 2011 A car bomb hits UN building in Nigerian capital Abuja, killing at least 18 people.

5 November, 2011 A spate of coordinated gun and bomb attacks in the city of Damaturu leave 63 dead. Boko Haram gunmen raid the city and the nearby village of Potiskum, following multiple bomb blasts in nearby Maiduguri, at churches and a bank.

22 December 2011 Boko Haram bombs several areas of Maiduguri, killing 20. A further 100 or so are killed following multiple bomb and shooting attacks by the group’s gunmen in the Pompomari outskirts of Damaturu.

25 December, 2011 A state of emergency called after fatal blast on churches in Maiduguri on Christmas day, killing 42 people. Another bomb blast in the north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri leaving four people dead.

6 January, 2012 Eight worshippers are killed in a shooting attack on a church in Yola. Gunmen shoot dead another 17 Christians in a Mubi church in the northeastern state of Adamawa. The victims had been mourning one of five people killed in an attack by Boko Haram on a hotel the day before.

18 January, 2012 A key suspect in the Christmas Day bombing in Abuja escapes police custody.

20 January, 2012 Some 178 people die after a series of bomb blasts and shootings in northern Nigeria.