From CNN- NIGERIA

Nigeria bombing kills 25, governor says


By Christian Purefoy and Jason Hanna, CNN



Updated 1351 GMT (2051 HKT) July 7, 2015































Bombings kill at least 28 in Nigeria on Monday 01:11


Story highlights
Northern Nigeria has seen near-daily attacks on civilian and government targets this month
Bomb rips through government building in Zaria on Tuesday, witness says
More than 200 have died in Nigeria in bombings and gun attacks since July 1



Lagos, Nigeria (CNN)A bomb killed 25 people at a local government building in north-central Nigeria Tuesday, a state governor said -- marking the latest in a series of recent deadly attacks in a country where the government is battling the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram.

The bomb -- "most likely carried by a suicide bomber" -- exploded at a local government council's office in the Sabon Gari section of the city of Zaria, Kaduna state Gov. Nasir El-Rufai said. Thirty-two other people were injured and being treated at a hospital, he said.

The building was crowded because residents were welcoming the new chairman of Sabon Gari's interim management committee, El-Rufai said. That leader was taking office Tuesday, and other civil servants were being registered at the building.

A 2-year-old child was among the dead, the governor said.

El-Rufai said extra security forces would be deployed throughout the state. An official statement from the state government called the attack "mindless."

"We call on our citizens to be vigilant and avoid crowded places like markets, mosques, churches and motor parks in the next few weeks," El-Rufai said on Twitter following the incident.


Also Tuesday: In Kenya, at least 14 killed in attack on residential building

Northern Nigeria has seen near-daily attacks on civilian and government targets since last week, leaving more than 200 dead. Witnesses and government officials have blamed last week's attacks on Boko Haram, the terror group that has been fighting the Nigerian government for more than a decade, pushing to bring an extreme version of Islamic law, or Sharia, to the masses.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for Tuesday's attack in Zaria.

A summary of northern Nigeria's bloody July:

• On July 1, Boko Haram fighters raided villages in northeastern Nigeria's Borno state, killing more than 150 people, witnesses and government officials said.

• On Sunday in Jos state, just east of Kaduna, an explosion ripped through a restaurant full of customers in a shopping complex. Also in Jos that day, attackers shot at a crowded mosque before launching a rocket-propelled grenade at the building. At least 44 people were killed and 47 others were injured in the pair of attacks, said Mohammed Abdussalam, an official at Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency. No claims of responsibility were immediately made.



Boko Haram: Nigeria's crisis 22 photos
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• On Sunday in the city of Potiskum in Yobe state, a suicide bomber blew himself up in a church, killing the priest and four other worshippers, witnesses and police said.

• On Monday in the city of Kano, explosives carried by a 13-year-old female suicide bomber detonated near a mosque. The girl died; no one else was hurt, police said.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Friday called last week's attacks "inhuman and barbaric" and pledged that every last "Boko Haram bandit ... would be hunted down without mercy and compromise."

Elected earlier this year, Buhari vowed to focus on the fight against the terrorist group, which has pledged allegiance to ISIS. But so far, he has struggled to stop the heavy bloodshed in the Northeast.

Along with suicide bombings, Boko Haram has attacked churches and mosques, raided once-peaceful villages and kidnapped people young and old, most infamously more than 200 girls taken in April 2014 from a school in Chibok.

Boko Haram's strongest presence is in northern Nigeria, where the majority of the country's Muslims live. The country's south is largely Christian and animist.

















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CNN's Christian Purefoy reported from Lagos. CNN's Jason Hanna wrote in Atlanta. CNN's Jethro Mullen and journalists Hassan John and Aminu Abubakr contributed to this report.