KANO, Nigeria: A deadly bombing in northern Nigeria and new details about kidnappings at the weekend blamed on Boko Haram cast further doubt yesterday on the government’s claim that the Islamists have agreed to a truce.
As reports emerged that extremists seized dozens more women and girls from the remote northeast — leaving a few dollars behind as a so-called ‘bride price’ — fresh violence rocked the town of Azare in Bauchi state.
A police spokesman for the state, Mohammed Haruna, said a bomb blast at a bus station in Azare killed five people, with their bodies “burnt beyond recognition,” and injured 12 others.
No-one claimed responsibility, but Bauchi has been attacked repeatedly throughout Boko Haram’s brutal five-year uprising, which has left more than 10,000 people dead. Azare resident Musa Babale said the explosion on Wednesday “shook buildings” and sent locals rushing for shelter. “The whole place was a mess,” he said after visiting the site.
France sends extra police to Calais after clash
CALAIS: France’s interior minister said yesterday he had dispatched 100 extra police to the port of Calais where an influx of illegal migrants trying to get to Britain is causing more and more havoc.
The northern town has for months been struggling to cope with a steady tide of migrants desperate to cross the Channel to Britain, and authorities say up to 2,300 asylum-seekers are now living rough in Calais and surrounding areas — up from 1,500 at the end of the summer.
This week, violent fights between migrants in an industrial district where many have taken refuge saw police fire tear gas and seal off the area to try and restore calm.
The migrants — many of whom are from Eritrea and Sudan but also from Syria and other conflict zones — aim to get to Britain where many already have family.
As such, they have taken to mobbing an area in the port where trucks wait to be checked before they board ferries, scrambling onto vehicles in the hope that no one will notice.
Agencies
