Campus attack in Nigeria

Church worshippers have again been attacked in Nigeria. Gunmen shot dead at least 16 people who were using an auditorium on Bayero University in the northern city of Kano. There was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Kano state police spokesman, Commissioner Ibrahim Idris, said the attackers had used explosives packed into aluminum drink cans, a method previously used by a radical Islamist sect known as Boko Haram.

The group has been blamed for a series of attacks aimed at churches, including a car bombing in a church compound in the northern town of Kaduna at Easter.

According to a tally by the Associated Press news agency more than 450 deaths among Christians, Muslims and government officials have been attributed to Boko Haram so far this year. On Thursday newspaper offices were attacked in Abuja and Kaduna, leaving seven people dead.

Academics among victims

A spokesman for Kano's Bayero University, Mustapha Zahradeen, said two professors were among the 16 killed. Police spokesman Idris said the assault left many other churchgoers seriously wounded.

By the time police responded, the assailants had fled on their motorcycles and "disappeared into the neighborhood," Idris said.

Police and soldiers subsequently sealed off the campus. Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency said security forces initially refused to allow rescuers to enter. The Red Cross said it was trying to get access.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan's government has focused on military responses in dealing with the insurgency. An attempt at a mediation with Boko Haram was broken off last month after details were leaked to the press.

ipj/pfd (AP, Reuters, AFP)