A blast has rocked an area near a mosque in the restive north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, with witnesses reporting four deaths.<\/p>\n
In a BBC interview, Nigerian army spokesman Brig Gen Isa blamed the Islamist group Boko Haram.<\/p>\n
The group – which wants strict sharia law – has carried out scores of attacks, mainly in the north-east.<\/p>\n
It has said it attacked several churches on Christmas Day, killing at least 42 people.<\/p>\n
Boko Haram has also in the past targeted international organisations and Muslim leaders from rival sects.<\/p>\n
“There was a loud blast near the mosque just after the Friday prayers as people were trooping out of the mosque,” one Maiduguri resident was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.<\/p>\n
“Everybody scampered to safety, leading to a stampede.”<\/p>\n
Another witness said he had seen four bodies.<\/p>\n
Brig Gen Isa said there had been a “major incident” which had caused casualties but did not give any further details.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of people have fled their homes in Maiduguri and other cities which have been attacked by Boko Haram, especially in nearby Yobe state.<\/p>\n
Earlier this week, Nigeria’s main Christian group warned that the community may have to defend itself if the security forces could not protect it.<\/p>\n
Analysts said the move raised the spectre of communal clashes in Africa’s most populous nation, which is divided between a largely Muslim north and a mainly Christian and animist south.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan summoned his security chiefs to discuss the Boko Haram threat.<\/p>\n
The leaders of Chad and Cameroon, which are close to Maiduguri, are reported to have held talks about how they can help prevent the violence spreading across their borders.<\/p>\n
The group, which originated in Maiduguri, this year staged suicide attacks on the headquarters of the UN and the national police in the capital, Abuja.<\/p>\n
It was also responsible for a string of bomb blasts in the central city of Jos on Christmas Eve 2010, as well as a New Year’s Eve attack on a military barracks in the capital. <\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A blast has rocked an area near a mosque in the restive north-eastern Nigerian city of Maiduguri, with witnesses reporting four deaths. In a BBC interview, Nigerian army spokesman Brig Gen Isa blamed the Islamist group Boko Haram. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-24639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\n