Deadly suicide bomb rocks UN building in Nigerian capital

ABUJA—A suicide bomb blast rocked the UN compound in the Nigerian capital Abuja on Friday, killing at least 18 people, blowing out much of the building and marking a sharp escalation in a wave of attacks.

The bomb went off after a suspect forced his way through two security gates and rammed the car into the building. The first two floors were blown out and rescue workers scrambled to help those left inside.

A man claiming to be a spokesman for the Nigerian Islamist sect known as Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attack in a telephone call to AFP and threatened further violence. The veracity of his claims could not be confirmed.

“Through the wisdom of Allah, we have launched the attack with absolute precision,” the man who identified himself as Abu Darda said in the call.

“The attack was carefully scripted and executed. We have said it several times that the UN is one of our prime targets.”

Boko Haram has been blamed for scores of bombings in recent months in Africa’s most populous nation and largest oil producer.

Such attacks, however, have not targeted international organisations, and Friday’s bomb marked a new level of audaciousness.

If the sect is found to be the culprit, it will surely lead to further concerns that it has formed links with extremist groups outside Nigeria, including Al-Qaeda’s north African branch.

“So far, we have 18 dead,” Mike Zuokumor, police commissioner for the Federal Capital Territory, which includes Abuja, told journalists.

“It was a Honda Accord car. The suicide bomber died immediately as the bomb cut him into three.”

At least 60 wounded were being treated at the national hospital and officials called for blood donations, a radio report said.

An emergency official at the scene said search-and-rescue operations stopped at around 6:30 pm. He said it was believed that everyone had been evacuated from the building.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who was at the building during a visit in May, strongly condemned the attack and said “considerable” casualties were expected. Ban said staff for 26 UN agencies and departments were in the building.

“This was an assault on those who devote their lives to helping others,” he said. “We condemn this terrible act utterly.”

Ban said he was sending Deputy UN Secretary General Asha-Rose Migiro and UN security chief Gregory Starr to Nigeria immediately.

He added that he would soon be talking with Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan, who pledged that authorities would hunt down the perpetrators.

Questions were already being raised about how the bomber was able to penetrate what was believed to be extremely tight security.

“The car got through a couple of gates which were defended by security guards. How that happened? How they got past security? We will need to determine how that was the case,” deputy UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.

Hundreds of people with a variety of nationalities were believed to have worked in the building, and the attack was among the bloodiest targeting the UN globally. A Norwegian woman was confirmed to be among the dead.

US President Barack Obama said the attack was “horrific and cowardly”, while European Union president Herman Van Rompuy called it “senseless” and “brutal”. French President Nicolas Sarkozy branded it “a hateful crime”.

A member of security personnel speaking on condition of anonymity spoke of “many dead”.

“A guy drove a Honda car, forced his way through the gate and rammed into the building, and then the bomb exploded,” the security source said at the scene.

One UN staff member said people had earlier been trapped in the building.

“I don’t know what is going on. Many people are still trapped upstairs and we need a crane to bring people down,” the UN staffer who did not want to give her name said in the aftermath of the explosion.

Security was tightened throughout Abuja after the blast, with military checkpoints set up along the road to the airport and elsewhere.

The UN building is located in Abuja’s diplomatic zone, not far from the US embassy.

Security is usually extremely tight, with non-UN vehicles typically not allowed to approach the gate leading to the compound, and the building is set back from the street.

A bomb blast that rocked a car park at national police headquarters in Abuja in June and killed at least two people was claimed by Boko Haram. Police first said it was the result of a suicide blast before later retracting their statement, saying they could not be sure.

Most of the attacks blamed on the sect have occurred in the country’s northeast, but a number have been carried out elsewhere, including the previous explosion in Abuja as well as several in Suleija near the capital.

The Islamist sect launched an uprising in 2009, put down by a brutal military assault that left hundreds dead.

It went dormant for about a year before re-emerging in 2010 with a series of assassinations of security personnel and politicians, as well as religious and community leaders.

Nigeria’s 150 million population is roughly divided in half between a mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south.