Kwankwaso: 100 died in mosque bombs, 135 wounded

Governor Rabiu Kwankwaso of Kano State has given the official death toll in the multiple bombing of the capital’s Grand Mosque on Friday.

He said a total of 100 people were killed in Friday’s coordinated attack on the central mosque of north Nigeria’s second largest city of Kano and 135 people were wounded.

Kwankwaso spoke on Saturday with reporters after visiting one of the hospitals treating the victims.

UnOfficial figures had estimated the death toll at between 80 and 120, with the injured put at 270.

.Gunmen set off three bombs and opened fire on worshippers at the main mosque in Kano in an attack that bore the hallmarks of Islamist Boko Haram militants, although the attack has not yet been claimed.

Boko Haram, a Sunni jihadist movement fighting to revive a medieval Islamic caliphate in northern Nigeria, regards the traditional Islamic religious authorities in Nigeria with disdain.

The targeted mosque is next to the palace of the emir of Kano, who is the second highest Islamic authority in Africa’s most populous country and a vocal critic of Boko Haram.In a bloody campaign of nearly six years the group has also targeted churches, schools, police stations, military bases and government buildings.

After Friday’s attack President Goodluck Jonathan said the perpetrators would be tracked down.