“An attack on Nigerian and international public servants demonstrates the bankruptcy of the ideology that led to this heinous action,” Obama said in statement.
No one has claimed responsibility for the blast, which security sources and witnesses said was caused by a car laden with explosives being rammed into an office complex where close to 400 people normally work for U.N. agencies.
But suspicion pointed toward Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram, whose strikes have been growing in intensity and spreading further afield, or al Qaeda’s North African arm.
“The United States strongly supports the work of the United Nations and its lasting bond with the people of Nigeria, a bond that will only emerge stronger in the wake of this murderous act,” Obama said.
He was winding up a vacation with his family on an island off the Boston coast.