Bomb Hits U.N. Building in Nigeria's Capital

A bomb struck the United Nations building in Abuja, Nigeria's capital, U.N. and Nigerian security officials said Friday, following multiple threats against the agency.
A security official in Abuja also confirmed the attack on the U.N. building, and said it was likely a car or truck bomb. The number of casualties wasn't immediately known.

Associated Press

This image released by Saharareporters shows firefighters and rescue workers after a large explosion struck the U.N.'s main office in Nigeria's capital Abuja on Friday.

A staff member at the U.N.'s office in Lagos said the blast occurred on the wing that houses the United Nations Children's Fund, or Unicef.
U.N. staff in Abuja are "busy evacuating casualties, but what type of explosion it was and how it happened, we still don't know," said Ramesh Singh, a U.N. security officer in Lagos.
Witnesses said they saw a car driving very quickly toward the U.N. building moments before the blast.
In an interview with British Broadcasting Corp. television, Nigeria's minister of state for foreign affairs, Viola Onwuliri, called the blast "act of international terrorism."
She didn't accuse any specific groups for the attack, but told the BBC that this "act carried out against the international community will be thoroughly investigated and [the perpetrators] brought to justice."
Witnesses said emergency crews were searching for victims in the wreckage after what appeared to be a suicide bomber rammed his vehicle into the U.N. compound.
"We saw that someone had driven into the gate with a bomb," said a man named Dioka, a staff member of the U.N. Development Program in Abuja, who gave his first name only. "People [are] still sifting through the rubble to see who survived and who didn't."
An official at the Federal Hospital in Abuja said that casualty figures "haven't yet been ascertained," but noted that several bodies had been taken to the morgue and several to emergency operating rooms. The official said the hospital urgently needed blood donations.
A spokeswoman at the nearby U.S. embassy in Abuja said that a vehicle drove through "the exit gate of the U.N. building, over speed bumps and into the lobby of the building before detonating the bomb." At least one portion of the building has significant damage, the spokeswoman said. The number of casualties remained unclear, and the spokeswoman said that as of now there were no U.S. citizens among the casualties.