Out of Africa: A Blog I Didn't Post in Real-Time

Thursday, June 16, 2011

A suicide bomber drove into police headquarters in Abuja this morning, killing himself and several others. This attack took place 25 minutes from our hotel. Too close for comfort for me. I can’t believe this happened, and in our first week here! Before our CSC team had arrived in Abuja, there had been no major terrorist attacks to speak of in the city. Although Nigeria has had its share of violence lately, the majority of it had been confined to Borno state, which is several hours north of us. Now it's in Abuja?!

The Nigerian terrorist group Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the bomb blast. Boko Haram is Hausa (one of Nigeria's official languages that is predominantly spoken by Muslims) and translates to “Western Education is a Sin.” Well, that doesn’t make me feel any better especially when I'm working with the Abuja Board of Education. Boko Haram is fighting to make northern Nigeria an Islamic state and to break away from the more Christian south. 

I first heard of the bombing from my friend Igho in Lagos. He called me just minutes after it occurred to make sure I was okay. A bit later our on-the-ground coordinator called all of us to make sure we were no where near the blast. It’s evening now and IBM security just had a conference call with us at our hotel. They assured us that they are tapped into intelligence networks and that we (foreigners) are not Boko Haram’s target. The terrorist group is after Nigerian police and politicians. Still, IBM said we should limit our night movements and avoid taking taxis. Part of me wonders if we should be evacuated. Where will the next attack be? Even if we're not the targets, what if we're caught in the crossfire? We are the first CSC team in Abuja and I'm sure IBM has done its homework on the situation, but I still can't help but worry some.

My teammate Glyn took this picture while he was in the car going to his client site. The bomber blew himself up in the parking lot of a police station which set fire to about 30 vehicles. The smoke engulfed most of the downtown area. 

#ibmcsc