A suicide bomber joined a large crowd of Shiite Muslims marching in a procession to mark Ashura, the annual day of mourning. He detonated his explosives, causing mass casualties. In the immediate aftermath, soldiers arrived at the scene. According to the Shiite leader and witnesses, the soldiers broke into the nearby seminary, where people had taken shelter, and opened fire, killing several more
3 Nov 2014 · Tsohuwar Kasuwa / Old Market Road area, Potiskum, Yobe
Deaths
32
Injured
119
Kidnapped
0
Total casualties
151
Perpetrators
Unidentified Armed Actors
Response
Security forces cordoned off the area . Victims were evacuated to Potiskum General Hospital, where a call went out for blood and medical supplies . Yobe State Governor Ibrahim Gaidam condemned the attack, described it as criminal, and directed hospitals to provide free medical treatment to all victims .
Displacement
0
Socioeconomic drivers
Religious extremism, sectarian targeting, insurgency tactics, weak urban security
Trajectory
The Potiskum bombing is one of the deadliest attacks on Shia Muslims in Nigeria's history. It fits a pattern of Boko Haram escalating its use of suicide bombings against soft civilian targets in 2014, at the height of the insurgency. The conflicting accounts of the soldiers' actions prefigure the 2020 Amnesty International report that documented a similar pattern of Nigerian military shootings of civilians following bomb attacks.
Cycle notes
The suicide bombing of a Shia procession directly echoes the 2011 Madalla Christmas Day bombings and the 2014 Nyanya bombings, where Boko Haram also targeted high-density civilian gatherings. The subsequent shooting of survivors echoes a tragic "double-tap" pattern seen in several Boko Haram attacks (e.g., the 2014 Jos bombings) where a secondary device or action is used against first responders. However, in this case, the secondary action is alleged to have been carried out by state security forces, not the insurgents.
Pattern
Boko Haram’s sectarian violence against Shia Muslims
Sources
- https://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/ap/article-2818877/Suicide-bomber-kills-2-northeast-Nigerian-city.html
- https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/170751-nigerian-soldiers-shot-fleeing-victims-potiskum-bomb-blast.html
- https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2014/11/nigeria-scores-dead-brutal-suicide-attack-potiskum/
Related — Bombing/IED
Boko Haram suicide bomber disguised as a student detonated explosives at Government Science Technical College (GSTC), Potiskum
A car bomb exploded at the Nyanya bus station during the morning rush hour, targeting commuters heading to work. The blast ripped through a crowd of people waiting for buses, killing at least 88 people and wounding over 200 others. The explosion was so powerful that it left a deep crater and destroyed dozens of vehicles.
In a watershed moment for the insurgency, a suicide bomber drove a Mercedes-Benz laden with explosives into the parking lot of the Force Headquarters (Louis Edet House) in Abuja. The bomber attempted to trail the convoy of the then-Inspector General of Police (IGP), Hafiz Ringim, into the secure premises. When intercepted by security in the car park, the device was detonated. This was the first documented suicide car bombing in Nigeria's history.