Thursday, June 12, 2014
Bomb threats in Adamawa, Nigeria: Authorities ban all World Cup public viewing centers
Authorities in north-eastern state of Adamawa, Nigeria have ordered the close of all venues planning to screen the coverage of the World Cup across the state.
The authorities claimed to have received intelligence of planned bomb attacks during the
competition, which opens in Brazil on Thursday.
Adamawa is one
of the states badly affected by Islamist violence.
Open-air viewing
centers - where people pay to watch live football - are popular
throughout Nigeria.
"Our action
is not to stop Nigerians... watching the World Cup. It is to protect
their lives," Brig-Gen Nicholas Rogers was quoted by the AFP
agency as saying on Wednesday in Yola, the capital of Adamawa.
The state has
often been targeted by Boko Haram Islamist militants.
Last
week suspected Boko Haram militants set off a car bomb that killed
18 people watching a match on television at a center in Adamawa.
In
both east and west Africa, experts say militant groups see the
popular public viewings combining football and alcohol as a prime
demonstration of “corrupting” Western influence.
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