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At least 18 people are killed by bomb blasts near an army barracks in northern Nigeria on the day Goodluck Jonathan is sworn in as president. A car laden with explosives detonated outside the United Nations' main office in Nigeria's capital Al Jazeera reported, at least 18 killed as car bomb rips through UN building in Abuja in suicide attack claimed by Islamist group.
Parts of the first two floors of the UN building were blown out as rescue workers scrambled to rescue those left inside.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility but police said they suspected radical Islamist sect Boko Haram, which has been behind almost daily attacks in the remote northeast and claimed a series of bomb blasts further afield last month.
Dozens of vehicles were set ablaze by the blast, which struck the car park outside the building. Thick black smoke billowed into the sky. Red Cross workers loaded body bags into ambulances but said it was too early to give a death toll.
Police spokesman Olusola Amore said the vehicle carrying the suspected bomber was stopped outside the building and directed to the car park to be searched. "The traffic warden who entered the vehicle of the suicide bomber to direct him to the car park was blown up along with him," Amore said.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) also said a suicide bomber was suspected. If confirmed, it would be the first suicide bombing in Africa's most populous nation. The blast at what should be one of Nigeria's most secure buildings raised questions about national security less than three weeks after President Goodluck Jonathan was sworn in for his first full term in office.
Witnesses said Police Inspector-General Hafiz Ringim had entered the building shortly before the blast. Ringim was quoted this week as saying Boko Haram's days were "numbered". "Suicide bombers, if confirmed, are a significant escalation. I guess this was payback for Ringim's imprudent boast," said one Western diplomat on condition of anonymity.
Hours after the Abuja explosion, four children were killed by an apparent bomb near a church in the town of Damboa, around 90 km (56 miles) south of the northeastern city of Maiduguri. Boko Haram, which says it wants a wider application of strict sharia (Islamic law) across Nigeria, has carried out almost daily attacks in and around Maiduguri in recent months.
Boko Haram's targets have been soldiers, policemen, prison warders and politicians as well as religious and traditional rulers opposed to its ideology. The sect has warned it would carry out more strikes if its demands were not met.
