Suicide bomber kills at least 26 Shia in Nigeria

A suicide bomber killed at least 26 people in a procession of Shia Muslims marking the ritual of Ashoura in northeast Nigeria's Yobe state today, said witnesses.

In the suicide bombing in Potiskum in Yobe state, a territory at the heart of an insurgency by Sunni Muslim Boko Haram rebels, the attacker joined the line of Shia before setting off his device as they marched through a market in the town, said resident Yusuf Abdullahi.

“I heard a very heavy explosion as if it happened in my room. It took place just 200m from my house,” he said. Another person carrying an explosive that did not go off was arrested, he added.

Another Potiskum resident, Abubakar Saliu, said soldiers started shooting immediately after the explosion, but it was not clear who they fired at or if anyone was hit by the gunfire.

Ashoura marks the death in battle more than 1,300 years ago of the Prophet Mohammad’s grandson Imam Hussein.

Boko Haram's five-year-old campaign for an Islamic state, which has killed thousands, is seen as the main security threat to Nigeria, Africa's biggest economy and leading oil producer.

In a separate incident overnight in central Kogi state, gunmen using explosives blew their way into a prison in the city of Lokoja, killing one person and freeing 144 inmates, said Adams Omale, prisons co-ordinator for the state. He said 26 of the inmates freed in the raid had been recaptured, but did not comment on whether any of the escaped prisoners were Boko Haram members.

Nigeria's government announced last month that a ceasefire had been agreed with Boko Haram and that talks were under way in neighbouring Chad for the release of more than 200 Nigerian schoolgirls abducted in April by the Islamist rebels.

But although mediator Chad has said the negotiations are still on, a spate of recent attacks across Nigeria's northeast by suspected Boko Haram fighters has raised serious doubts about whether a lasting peace pact can be achieved. Reuters/Bloomberg