Dozens Killed and Wounded in Suicide Bombing at Shia Ceremony in Nigeria

A suicide bombing at a Shia ceremony in Kano, Nigeria, left 21 dead and several injured. Kano, located in northern Nigeria, is an area of operation for the Boko Haram group, which seeks to establish an Islamic government. According to AFP, a suicide bomber detonated himself on Friday, December 6, in a village 20 kilometers south of Kano among a crowd of Shia Muslims who were marching towards the city of Zaria to participate in a commemoration for their local religious leader. Local sources report 21 fatalities, but the regional police chief told Reuters that the exact number of dead and injured is still unclear. Although no group has claimed responsibility for the attack, the Islamist group Boko Haram has repeatedly targeted places like mosques, markets, and bus stations using suicide bombers. This group, which emerged in 2009, controlled parts of northeastern Nigeria until 2014, but has lost nearly all those areas this year in battles with the Nigerian army and neighboring countries, and has recently pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS). Boko Haram has also conducted numerous attacks in the border regions of Chad, Cameroon, and Niger, prompting these countries to collaborate with Nigeria to suppress the group. The United States also sent several of its special forces to assist Cameroon last year. Just last week, two female suicide bombers detonated themselves in a mobile phone market in Kano, resulting in at least 14 deaths and over a hundred injuries. The unrest in northern Nigeria has led to the displacement of over two million people, with thousands killed and hundreds kidnapped. Notably, in one of Boko Haram's attacks on a village in northern Nigeria in 2014, around 300 schoolgirls were abducted, some of whom were later freed during a Nigerian army operation, but the fate of others remains unknown.