2013 Kano bus bombing

On March 18, 2013, a suicide attack targeted Christian civilians at a bus station in Kano, Nigeria. The victims were boarding buses to travel to the mostly Christian south and east of the country when the attack occurred.

The attack was carried out using a Volkswagen Golf packed with explosives and driven by three suicide bombers. The vehicle sped toward five buses that were in the process of boarding civilians, most of whom were Christian. The car struck one of the buses and exploded. In the aftermath, people attempted to evacuate from the remaining buses, but a fire spread to the four other buses, many of which still had passengers inside at the time.

Casualty figures for the attack vary significantly across sources and have not been definitively settled. The Nigerian outlet Vanguard reported that the attack killed up to 60 people, while the BBC reported a death toll of 22. Reuters reported a toll of 25. The precise number of fatalities therefore remains disputed among contemporaneous reports.

While the exact death toll is contested, the intended target of the attack is not disputed: the buses were carrying passengers who were mostly Christian, a group that has been a recurring target of the militant group Boko Haram in Nigeria. The attack is understood in the context of the broader Boko Haram insurgency and a pattern of violence against Christian civilians and other targets in northern Nigeria during this period, including prior attacks such as those in January 2012 in northern Nigeria.

No one has been publicly named as charged or convicted in connection with the attack. The three individuals who drove the explosive-laden vehicle were suicide bombers and died in the attack; they are unnamed.