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Baby lost in bombing chaos to be reunited with mom

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — A baby lost in the chaos of the bus station bomb blast in Nigeria's capital is to be reunited Wednesday with her critically wounded mother, a Nigerian newspaper reported.

The 10-month-old baby, named Goodness, is being cared for at a hospital where it was presumed her mother was among the 75 dead victims of Monday's explosion, reported The Daily Trust.

But family members found the mother, Gloria Adams, in another hospital. And then an aunt discovered baby Goodness.

Hospital officials are preparing to reunite the two, the newspaper said.

It quoted a doctor as saying the baby suffered only a swollen eye, which is being monitored. But Adams apparently suffered serious injuries as she is in the intensive care unit of Wuse General Hospital.

Health officials say 141 wounded victims are in 15 hospitals and clinics. The death toll is expected to rise as it does not yet include victims who were blown apart.

President Goodluck Jonathan has blamed Islamic extremists of the Boko Haram terrorist network, which had confined most attacks in the past two years to the extreme northeast of Nigeria.

The militants also are accused of abducting about 100 young female students from a school in northeastern Borno state just hours after the bombing. Gunmen killed a soldier and police officer guarding the school and made off with the young women, aged between 16 and 18, in an open-back truck. Some managed to escape by jumping off the slow-moving vehicle, but it is not clear how many. Extremists have been abducting girls and women to use as cooks and sex slaves.

They also have been abducting boys and young men to swell their ranks after three months of aerial bombardments and ground assaults on their hideouts in forests and mountain caves along the border with Cameroon.

Monday's blast and the kidnappings have strengthened doubts about the ability of Nigeria's military to contain the 5-year-old Islamic uprising that has killed more than 1,500 people this year, compared to an estimated 3,600 between 2010 and 2013.

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Faul reported from Lagos, Nigeria.