Suspect in Boko Haram Nigeria Attack 'Held in Sudan'
A suspect wanted over the deadliest-ever attack in Nigeria's capital -- a blast blamed on Boko Haram Islamists -- has been arrested in Sudan, a source close to the case said Thursday.
Aminu Sadiq Ogwuche was detained on Tuesday as he tried to get a visa from the Turkish embassy in central Khartoum, the source told Agence France Presse, requesting anonymity.
"There wasn't any resistance" to the arrest, said the source, who added that the suspect was still in Sudan on Thursday.
Seventy-one people were killed and 124 were wounded in the April 15 bomb explosion at a packed Abuja bus station.
President Goodluck Jonathan blamed Boko Haram, much of whose previous violence had been in the country's northeast.
Nigerian officials earlier said Ogwuche was the subject of a "Red Notice" from Interpol. Red Notices are typically issued for wanted persons with a view to their extradition.
Ogwuche arrived in Khartoum late last year to study Arabic at the International University of Africa, but visited Nigeria earlier this year, the source added.
Boko Haram is currently holding hostage more than 200 schoolgirls that it kidnapped, an act that has sparked global outrage.
In the early 1990s, Sudan became a notorious refuge for militant Islamists, including now-dead al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden who was based in Sudan from 1991 to 1996.
Although the United States continues to designate Sudan as a State Sponsor of Terrorism, one of only four in the world, a 2013 U.S. State Department report said the country "is generally responsive to international community concerns about counter-terrorism efforts."
It said Sudan's vast, mostly unmonitored borders with Libya, Chad, the Central African Republic, South Sudan, Ethiopia, and Eritrea have, however, hampered counter-terrorism efforts.
Source: Agence France Presse
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