No fewer than 120 died and 270 were injured on Friday as the violent
Boko Haram sect bombed the 10,000 capacity Kano Central Mosque where the Emir,
Alhaji Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, usually leads prayers.
About 10 gunmen went on a shooting spree after the blast at the mosque,
which is close to the Emir of Kano’s palace.
A rescue official, who spoke with Agence France-Presse, put casualty
figures at almost 400, adding that 120 were killed and 270 hurt in the three
explosions that rocked the mosque.
The emir was said to have travelled to Saudi Arabia late on Thursday
night from Paris.
Witnesses said the incident happened just as residents were getting set
for Friday prayers.
“The attackers have bombed the mosque. I saw people screaming,” a local
reporter who resides in Kano, Chijjani Usman, told Reuters.
Another eyewitness told the British Broadcasting Corporation that he had
counted over 50 bodies immediately after the blasts.
Also, the Editor, BBC Hausa Service, Mansur Liman, was quoted as saying
that people had witnessed “horrible” scenes in a nearby hospital.
One eyewitness, who spoke with the BBC’s Focus on Africa, said, “The
imam was about to start prayer when he saw somebody in a car trying to force
himself into the mosque. But when people stopped him, he detonated the
explosions. People started running helter-skelter.”
Another worshipper, Aminu Abdullahi, who also spoke to AFP, said, “Two
bombs exploded, one after the other, in the premises of the Grand Mosque
seconds after the prayers had started.”
“A third one went off in a nearby road close to the Qadiriyya Sufi
order. The blasts were followed by gunshots by the police to scare off
potential attacks.”
His account was backed up by another witness, Hajara Tukur, who said she
lives nearby.
A senior rescue official confirmed that several bodies had been brought
to just one Kano area hospital, while over 126 people had been admitted with
injuries at three facilities.
“Those figures are going to climb,” he told AFP on condition of
anonymity, as he was not authorised to speak to the media.
A military official, Capt. Ikechukwu Eze, also said scores of people
were feared killed and many others injured in the attack.
A check by one of our correspondents at the mortuaries of both the
Murtala Mohammed Specialist Hospital and the Nasarawa Hospital in the heart of
the city showed they were filled with bodies of victims of the blasts while
some of them littered the ground.
Meanwhile, two suspected bomber were said to have been arrested at the
scene of the incident, just as youths took to the street to protest what they
called negligence by the police for not doing enough to protect the lives and
property of the people.
The Kano State Police Command’s Public Relations Officer, Mustapha
Abubakar,confirmed the incident but declined to give the casualty.
The emir had recently called for people to arm themselves against
Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
Earlier this month, the emir told a prayer meeting that people should
“acquire what they need” to protect themselves.
The Boko Haram terrorist group has killed more than 2,000 people this
year, according to rights groups’ reports.
The Kano blasts came after a bomb attack was also foiled at a mosque in
Maiduguri on Friday morning; five days after two female suicide bombers killed
over 45 people in the city.
The Emir of Kano last week doubted the Nigerian troops’ ability to
protect civilians and end the insurgency.
This had prompted his advice to Kano residents to arm themselves against
Boko Haram attacks.
The Emir of Kano is an influential figure in Nigeria, which is home to
more than 80 million Muslims, most of who live in the North.
Boko Haram has repeatedly attacked Kano before. On November 14, a
suicide bomb attack at a filling station killed six people, including three
policemen.