Nigeria: Boko Haram bomb-making factory uncovered

Security officials in Nigeria have discovered a bomb-making factory on Saturday in Kano, a northern city that has been plagued by the Boko-Haram Islamist insurgency.

The Boko Haram, a group styled on the Taliban, is waging an insurgency against the federal government with the avowed aim of carving an Islamic state out of Nigeria, a country of more than 160 million split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.

Boko Haram has killed hundreds in gun and bomb attacks in the past two and a half years, mostly in the predominantly Muslim north, although it has struck central Nigeria and the capital Abuja.

Security officials revealed that the raid had uncovered 12 improvised bombs and bomb-making chemicals, more than 600 rounds of ammunition, military uniforms and eight AK-47 assault rifles.

A push by the Nigeria military in the north has weakened the Boko Haram. However, as the group comes under pressure in its northeastern heartland, its attacks have spread further afield.

It is suspected that members of the Boko Haram opened fire on Christian worshippers in the central state of Kogi on Monday, killing 19.