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Nigeria on edge over Boko Haram, blast at presidential rally

02 February 2015 18:32 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. A suspected suicide bombing rocked a presidential campaign rally in northeast Nigeria on Monday, as the country braced for fresh Boko Haram attacks before polling in just under two weeks time, APA reports quoting AFP.

President Goodluck Jonathan, who had been addressing supporters of his ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Gombe city, had just left the venue when the blast happened in a car park outside.

Rescue workers and health officials said the bodies of two women were brought to the Gombe State Specialist Hospital with 18 people who were injured.

"We have evacuated two bodies of females we believe were suicide bombers behind the blast," said the rescue official, who asked to remain anonymous because he was not authorised to speak to media.

The blast, confirmed by eyewitnesses including a local reporter following the presidential convoy, came a day after two explosions in Gombe city blamed on Boko Haram militants.

Sunday's attacks left at least five people dead in a weekend of deadly violence that also saw the Islamists attack the key city of Maiduguri for the second time in a week.

Nigerian troops, aided by civilian vigilantes, repelled the attack while Chad and Cameroon bombed the Boko Haram-held town of Gamboru, on the eastern fringe of Borno State.

Security analysts believe Maiduguri, the Borno state capital, will likely be hit again before polling day, given its symbolism for the group and because it would undermine the February 14 vote.

The election is expected to be the closest since Nigeria returned to civilian rule in 1999, with the prospect of the PDP being dumped out of power for the first time in 16 years.

Nnamdi Obasi, Nigeria researcher at the International Crisis Group, said the upsurge in violence was "predictable" and that another strike on Maiduguri was on the cards.

Boko Haram is in control of most of Borno and has effectively surrounded Maiduguri, which is seen as one of the few places left in the state where voting could feasibly still take place.

Turnout could be affected if large numbers of people, may of them displaced by six years of violence, desert the city, which with other areas in the northeast is a main opposition stronghold.

Capturing Maiduguri would not only be a morale-booster for the rebels but also likely sink Jonathan's re-election bid once and for all, said Obasi.

Chad's offensive comes after the African Union and United Nations last week backed a new 7,500-strong, five-nation force to tackle Boko Haram.

Nigeria's military maintains that N'Djamena's involvement is part of the existing agreement with Chad and Niger for their troops to assist in the counter-insurgency.

Chad and Niger had withdrawn their troops from the multi-national base at Baga, in northern Borno, last year, leaving only Nigerian soldiers to defend the town when it was attacked on January 3.

That led some to assume the existing force was dead in the water but the devastating strike on Baga, in which hundreds or more were feared killed, appears to have jolted it into action.