Two Dead After Bombing

This past Sunday, two people were killed near a church in Jos, Nigeria, after an attempted bombing that went awry. The bombing comes at a critical juncture in the history of Nigeria; two weeks prior to the presidential elections that could potential cause great upheaval in an already divided country. The bombing also coincided with a discovery by Nigerian soldiers who some time earlier found a truck loaded with explosives, detonators, and 33,000 pounds of ammunition which are believed to be part of a plan for more bombings. Officials say that the bomb detonated while two people were passing by on a motorcycle and that there were no other casualties in the surrounding area although several nearby shops and businesses were destroyed or damaged. Police commissioner Abdurrahman Akanu said that, "the two of them died and burned down beyond recognition." The commissioner said that they would continue to investigate the attack but that, at the moment, they have no plausible attempted target for the attack. After the attack, people began grabbing possessions and fleeing the area. Journalists were blocked from the scene.

At its root, this event illustrates the volatile cleavages present in Nigeria between the Muslim North and Christian South. The two groups who have historically butted heads in this region and elsewhere seem to be becoming even more enraged as the upcoming elections draw near. Furthermore, it shows a distinct type of political participation wrought with violence. People are engaging in political violence on both sides of the party lines, evident in the fact that some 200 people have, according the Human Rights Watch, died in the city of Jos since December alone. It will be interesting to see what effect the outcome of the election in April has on the intensity of the cleavages in Nigeria and whether political violence will increase as rapidly as one would expect it to.