Blasts kill seven as Nigeria reaches 50th year

At least seven people were killed in three explosions as Nigeria celebrated the 50th anniversary of its independence yesterday.

Two car bombs detonated in the capital Abuja as the president was celebrating the anniversary. A third smaller explosion was also reported.

The explosions came after militants warned there was “nothing worth celebrating after 50 years of failure” in Africa’s most populous nation, which is oil-rich but where most live on less than one dollar (65p) a day.

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The attacks would be among the militants’ boldest yet, striking in Nigeria’s capital during an event with heavy security held hundreds of miles from the Niger Delta region where they are based.

A car bomb detonated just as a military formation began to march at Eagle Square, where President Goodluck Jonathan was on hand for the celebration.

Five minutes later, a second car bomb detonated, killing at least seven people, a police officer said.

At least one of the dead was a policeman, the officer said.

Inside Eagle Square, a news agency reporter saw a small explosive detonate in front of members of the military gathered there. A security agent was seen lying on the ground near that blast.

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The 50th independence anniversary ceremony continued without interruption, though those attending clearly recognised something had gone wrong.

The Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (Mend), the main militant group in Nigeria’s oil-rich southern delta, had issued a threat to journalists yesterday morning.

“For 50 years, the people of the Niger Delta have had their land and resources stolen from them,” the statement read. “The constitution before independence which offered resource control was mutilated by illegal military governments and this injustice is yet to be addressed.”

Upset by the spills and the region’s poverty, militants in the delta have targeted pipelines, kidnapped petroleum company workers and fought government troops since 2006.

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That violence drastically subsided after a government-sponsored amnesty deal last year, which provided cash pay-offs for fighters and the promise of job training. However, many ex-fighters now complain that the government has failed to fulfil its promises.

The militants have used car bombs before. In March, they detonated two car bombs near a government building in the Niger Delta where officials were discussing the amnesty deal, wounding two people in an attack heard live on television.

In April 2006, Mend claimed responsibility for attacks on an army barracks and an oil refinery during which two people were killed. It also detonated a car bomb outside a state governor’s office in December 2006.

Nigeria, a member of Opec, is one of the top crude oil suppliers to the US

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n The US and its European allies must work together better to stop radicalised Westerners who travel to terrorist training camps and return home to wage attacks, a report has said.

The warning came as Western officials said they were investigating an active terrorist plot to carry out Mumbai-style attacks in the UK, France and Germany.

The new report, from the George Washington University in the US and the Swedish National Defence College, said said radicalised Westerners who easily travel around the world represent a growing terrorism threat. Though they are still fairly few in number, these extremists help inspire and unite others.

“Thwarting terrorist travel is of the highest priority,” said Charles Allen, a former top US intelligence and homeland security official.

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