TheCable

Boko Haram, the insurgent group wreaking havoc in northeastern Nigeria, has claimed responsibility for Friday’s multiple explosions in Abuja.

Simultaneous bomb explosions had ripped through the satellite towns of Kuje and Nyanya, killing at least 18 people and wounding about 41 more people.

BBCAfrica, through its twitter handle on Monday, confirmed that the sect had claimed responsibility for the attacks.

It said: “The Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram says it carried out suicide bombings that killed at least 18 on the outskirts of Abuja on Friday.”

The Nigeria police had last Saturday revealed that the bomb attacks were carried out by suicide bombers, but did not exactly say if the attackers were members of Boko Haram.

The Nigeria military claims it has degraded the insurgents, but their bomb attacks have not yet subsided.

The military has also maintained that it will finish off the sect before December in line with a presidential directive that it should end the insurgency in three months.

Last Thursday, at least 10 people were killed in a suicide bombing in Maiduguri, Borno state.

About 17, 000 people have been killed since the violent onslaughts of Boko Haram in the country in 2009.