Deadly bombing at UN building in Nigeria’s capital
At least 16 people have been killed after a car laden with explosives blew up outside the United Nations’ main office in Nigeria’s capital, tearing a huge hole in one side of the building.
Witnesses told the Associated Press that a sedan broke through the exit at the UN compound, ramming through two separate gates as guards tried to stop it. The suicide bomber drove the car up to the main reception of the building before detonating, inflicting the most damage possible, witnesses said.
“I saw scattered bodies,” said Michael Ofilaje, a Unicef worker at the building. “Many people are dead.”
He said it felt like “the blast came from the basement and shook the building”.
The building houses about 400 employees of the UN in Nigeria, including the majority of its offices. A local UN spokesman declined to comment but a hospital administrator told the AP it had treated as many as 40 victims so far, with more coming in.
The figure of 16 killed came from the Nigerian Red Cross. Alessandra Vellucci, a spokeswoman for the UN office in Geneva, said it had no word yet on casualties.