UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon [official profile] on Thursday condemned [UN News Centre report] the terrorist attacks in Nigeria that left 30 dead and approximately 80 injured. The attacks occurred when a bomb exploded around 8:00 PM at a fruit and vegetable market beside a main road in the Jambutu area of Yola. The Secretary-General’s statement expressed his condolences to the families of the victims and the government of Nigeria and reiterated that “no political or ideological objective whatsoever justifies the loss of life and terror to which civilians are being subjected.” The Secretary-General pledged the UN’s continued support to Nigeria in its efforts to fight terrorism while simultaneously stressing that such efforts should be grounded in international human rights and refugee law. Within 24 hours of the Secretary-General’s statement,a second explosion [CNN report] occurred involving a 11-year-old suicide bomber in Kano, Nigeria.

These attacks in Nigeria come within a week of the attacks in Paris [JURIST report], which left 129 dead and more than 350 injured. While those attacks have been tied to the terror group Islamic State [PBS backgrounder], the militant Islamic group Boko Haram is currently the primary suspect in the Nigeria attacks. Boko Haram [BBC backgrounder; JURIST news archive], which means “Western education is a sin,” has been fighting to overthrow the Nigerian government in the interest of creating an Islamist state. Earlier this year the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Raad al-Hussein [official profile], reported that Boko Haram militants in Nigeria have been murdering women and girls [JURIST report] previously taken captive by the group. The group has been increasing [Reuters report] the intensity and frequency of its attacks ever since it lost most of the territory, which it took over earlier this year, to the Nigerian army. Most of these attacks have centered around markets, bus stations, places of worship and hit-and-run attacks on villages.