The 2011 Abuja bombing was a car bomb explosion on Friday, 26 August 2011 in the Nigerian capital Abuja's UN building that killed at least 21 and wounded 60. A spokesperson from the Sunni Islamist group Boko Haram later claimed responsibility. At about 11:00 WAT in the diplomatic zone in the centre of the city the car bomb vehicle broke through two security barriers. Then its driver detonated the bomb after crashing it into the UN reception area. The bomb caused devastation to the building's lower floors. The building is said to be the headquarters for about 400 UN employees but it is not clear how many were inside the building at the time of the attack. A wing of the building collapsed and the ground floor of the building was badly damaged. Emergency services were quickly on the scene removing dead bodies from the building and rushing the wounded to hospital. Cranes were brought to the blast site to move the mass of rubble and ensure that no-one is trapped there. The blast killed at least 21 people and injured 73. The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs,

Viola Onwuliri Viola Adaku Onwuliri (born 18 June 1956) is a university professor of Biochemistry and politician who served as Nigeria's Foreign Minister. Life Viola Onwuliri is the first daughter of the Royal Family of His Highness Eze Cletus and Ugoeze Do ...

, said: "This is not an attack on Nigeria but on the global community. An attack on the world."

UN Secretary-General The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or SG) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the six principal organs of the United Nations. The role of the secretary- ...

Ban Ki-moon described the attack as an 'assault on those who devote themselves to helping others'"Abuja bombing: UN offices hit by deadly blast"
''The Guardian''. Retrieved on 28 August 2011. The attack was the first suicide bombing in Nigeria to attack an

international organisation An international organization or international organisation (see spelling differences), also known as an intergovernmental organization or an international institution, is a stable set of norms and rules meant to govern the behavior of states an ...

. In September 2011 the Nigerian Department of State Security alleged that Mamman Nur was the mastermind behind the attack and offered a

₦ The naira ( sign: ₦; code: NGN) is the currency of Nigeria. One naira is divided into 100 ''kobo''. The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) is the sole issuer of legal tender money throughout the Federal Republic of Nigeria. It controls the vol ...

26 million (US$160,000) bounty. Also four men appeared in an Abuja magistrates' court charged with organising the bombing, and were remanded in custody to a federal high court hearing.

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See also