Death toll from Nigeria bombing rises to 16

At least 16 people have died in a car bomb attack on the United Nations’ offices in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja.

Nigerian Red Cross official Umar Mairiga, said at least 11 others were injured but he believes the casualty figure will be much higher.

Witnesses said a sedan broke through the exit at the UN compound, ramming through two separate gates as guards tried to stop the vehicle.

The suicide bomber inside crashed the car into the main reception of the building before detonating, inflicting the most damage possible.

The brazen attack was carried out as the UN offices teemed with staff.

“I saw scattered bodies,” said Michael Ofilaje, a UNICEF worker at the building, which he said shook with the explosion. “Many people are dead.”

The building houses about 400 employees of the UN in Nigeria, including the majority of its offices.

Eight bodies of victims were brought to the morgue of the nearby National Hospital, spokesman Payo Hastrup said. Local television stations broadcast pleas for blood donation. Officials tried to account for everyone inside the building at the time of the explosion.

“We believe there are many casualties but at this point we don’t know what the level of casualties is,” UN deputy spokesman Farhan Haq said in New York. “We condemn all terror attacks regardless of motivation.”

The building, located in the same neighbourhood as the US embassy and other diplomatic posts in Abuja, houses offices of a number of UN agencies including the UN Development Programme, UNICEF and the UN Population Fund.

The explosion punched a huge hole in the building. Workers brought three large cranes to the site within hours of the attack, trying to pull away the concrete and rubble to find survivors. Others at the site stood around, stunned, as medical workers began carrying out what appeared to be the dead.

“This is getting out of hand,” said a UN staffer who identified himself as Bodunrin. “If they can get into the UN House, they can reach anywhere.”

Ali Tikko, who was in a building 100 yards from the site of the blast when it occurred said, “I heard one big boom.”

Local police spokesman Jimoh Moshood said police are investigating. Reuben Abati, a spokesman for President Goodluck Jonathan, said the presidency would later issue a statement on the attack.

No one immediately claimed responsibility. Oil-rich Nigeria faces terrorism threats on multiple fronts.

Nigeria, a nation of 150 million, is split between a largely Christian south and Muslim north.

In recent months, the country has faced an increasing threat from a radical Muslim sect called Boko Haram, which wants to implement a strict version of Shariah law in the nation.

The sect has carried out assassinations and bombings, including the June car bombing of the national headquarters of Nigeria’s federal police that killed at least two people.

Earlier this month, the commander for US military operations in Africa said Boko Haram may be trying to link with two al-Qaida-linked groups in other African countries to mount joint attacks in Nigeria.

General Carter Ham said during a visit to Nigeria that “multiple sources” indicate Boko Haram made contacts with al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, which operates in north-west Africa, and with al-Shabab in Somalia.

“I think it would be the most dangerous thing to happen not only to the Africans, but to us as well,” he said.