Ecumenical News

Multiple coordinated bombings in the northern Nigerian city of Kano have claimed the lives of at least 143 people.

A radical Islamist group, Boko Haram, is behind the bombings that targeted five police buildings, two immigration offices and the local headquarters of the State Security Service, Nigeria's secret police.

A 24-hour curfew was imposed Saturday and is expected to continue until Sunday morning.

Nigerian Red Cross spokesman, Nwakpa O. Nwakpa, , said volunteers offered first aid to the wounded, and evacuated those seriously injured to local hospitals. He said officials continued to collect corpses at attack sites. Relatives of the deceased were also allowed to collect the remains of their loved ones.

Boko Haram said in a statement, the attacks are a result of government’s refusal to release its members held by police.

African Union commission chairman, Jean Ping, has condemned the attacks “in the strongest terms" and expressed his condolences to the families of the deceased.

The militant group is blamed for many recent attacks in Nigeria, including a Christmas Day bombing near a Catholic church in the country’s capital city of Abuja.

The group’s name which means, “Western education is a sin,” is behind the killings of at least 510 people according to reports from the Associated Press.