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GENEVA, SWITZERLAND – The death toll has been steadily mounting with at least 140 people known to have died in Kano, Nigeria, after the city was shaken by a series of bomb explosions Friday night 20 January. The bombs were planted in security areas such as police stations. Boko Haram, an Islamist extremist group that operates mainly in the northern, Muslim-predominated part of the country has claimed responsibility for the attacks. The group killed 37 people and injured scores more in a Christmas Day attack on a church outside the capital, Abuja.

Nigeria has been under pressure from protests over oil prices in recent weeks: it produces nearly 3 percent of the world’s oil, with production in the southern part of the country, but the system is riddled with corruption and the country is dependent on subsidized imported fuel. The government’s efforts to reform the system were behind a 1 January end to the subsidies, but angry protests suddenly broke out when the result was a near doubling of the price of fuel. But Reuters, in a 31 December article, noted that “Its strikes are becoming deadlier and more sophisticated, and suggest that it is trying to ignite sectarian strife in a country historically prone to conflicts between a largely Muslim north and Christian south.”

Links to other sites: AllAfrica, Reuters, WSJ Market Watch

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