ABUJA (BNO NEWS) -- A large explosion ripped through a United Nations building in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on late Friday morning, killing at least 18 people and injuring dozens more, officials said on Saturday.
The explosion happened just before 11 a.m. local time, destroying a large part of the three-story building where hundreds of people were working at the time. Parts of the walls were blown out, and victims were seen being carried out of the building.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the attack and said the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber. "This was an assault on those who devote their lives to helping others. We condemn this terrible act, utterly," he said.
As of Saturday morning, Nigerian officials said 18 people were confirmed to have been killed while more than 40 others were injured. Police said the death toll could still rise as rescue operations are continuing and some of the injured remain in a critical condition.
A spokesman for the Islamist group Boko Haram told the BBC in a phone call that it had carried out the attack, as local officials had suspected. However, it is unusual for the group to target foreigners, and some say Friday's attack could indicate a shift in the group's strategy.
Officials have blamed the militarist Islamic group for most of the region's terrorist attacks. The militant group staged an uprising in Maiduguri in 2009, attacking government institutions, which led to clashes with security forces. More than 700 people were estimated to have been killed during the sectarian violence.
Boko Haram has constantly sought the imposition of an extremist stance of the Shariah law, which is a Muslim code of conduct. The group's name, 'Boko Haram,' in the local language of Hausa, roughly translates as 'Western religion is sacrilegious' or 'non-Islamic religion is a sin.'
Nigerian President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan and his government condemned Friday's attack, calling it a 'barbaric, senseless and cowardly' act. He reaffirmed the Nigerian government's commitment to 'vigorously' combat all forms of terrorism, and pledged to spare no effort to bring the perpetrators to justice.
The heads of several UN agencies, many which also have offices in Abuja, deplored the bombing, including United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Administrator Helen Clark who called it a 'brutal' attack. "These are unarmed civilians who have dedicated their lives to helping the people of Nigeria," Clark said.
In the United States, President Barack Obama offered his 'deepest sympathies' on behalf of the American people. "The people who serve the United Nations do so with a simple purpose: to try to improve the lives of their neighbors and promote the values on which the UN was founded -- dignity, freedom, security, and peace," he said. "The UN has been working in partnership with the people of Nigeria for more than five decades. An attack on Nigerian and international public servants demonstrates the bankruptcy of the ideology that led to this heinous action."
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also condemned the attack, saying there is no justification for such violence. "Vicious terrorist attacks such as these only strengthen our resolve and commitment to the work of the United Nations and the people of Nigeria," she said.
In Europe, European Parliament President Jerzy Buzek said an attack on the United Nations is an attack on the whole international community. "The United Nations is in Nigeria to assist the Nigerian people; it is therefore all the more shocking that this attack occurred," he said. "The European Parliament condemns this heinous act."
In late June, 25 people were killed as a result of three bomb blasts which struck popular nightspots in the city of Maiduguri, the capital of Nigeria's Borno State. It came just two weeks after a powerful car bomb rocked the National Police Force Headquarters in Abuja, killing four people.