Source: Reuters
* Search for bodies continues, death toll could rise
* Authorities hope leader's death has ended uprising
* Residents return to streets
(Adds Red Cross comment)
By Ibrahim Mshelizza
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Aug 2 (Reuters) - More than 700 people were killed during a five-day uprising by a radical Islamic sect in northern Nigeria and the search for bodies is continuing, Red Cross and defence officials said on Sunday.
Gunbattles raged for days last week as the security forces fought to put down the uprising by members of Boko Haram, a militant movement which wants sharia (Islamic law) to be imposed more widely in Africa's most populous nation.
Violence flared in several states but Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state where sect leader Mohammed Yusuf had his base, saw the heaviest fighting.
"From our findings, the toll is 780 so far ... A joint operation team has been tasked to search for remaining dead bodies all over the town," Aliiyu Maikano, northeastern disaster management officer for the Nigerian Red Cross, told Reuters.
State government and Health Ministry workers have been piling corpses, some swollen after lying in the streets for days, onto open trucks.
"Over 700 dead bodies were given mass burial in Maiduguri town alone. Most of the bodies were buried in Yusuf's compound that used to be their headquarters," a senior defence official in the capital Abuja told Reuters.
The troubles began last Sunday in Bauchi state, some 400 km (250 miles) southwest of Maiduguri, when members of the group -- loosely modelled on the Taliban in Afghanistan -- were arrested on suspicion of plotting to attack a police station.
Boko Haram followers, armed with machetes, knives, home-made hunting rifles and petrol bombs, then went on the rampage in several cities. Maiduguri, where sect leader Mohammed Yusuf had his base, saw the heaviest fighting.
Yusuf, 39, was shot in police detention in Maiduguri on Thursday and the authorities are hoping his killing will bring an end to the uprising.
Hundreds of people gathered on Friday to see Yusuf's corpse, laid on the ground in front of Maiduguri police headquarters alongside the bodies of other presumed Boko Haram members.
Officials have said Yusuf died while trying to escape but human rights groups have condemned what they said looked like an execution-style killing.
Residents ventured back onto the streets on Saturday, banks reopened and soldiers began to withdraw their roadblocks. But the authorities have said house to house searches for Yusuf's followers will continue.
Boko Haram's views are not espoused by the majority of Nigeria's Muslim population, the largest in sub-Saharan Africa. The Muslim umbrella group Jama'atu Nasril Islam has condemned the uprising and voiced support for the security forces. (Additional reporting by Felix Onuah in Abuja; writing by Nick Tattersall; editing by Tim Pearce)
===============
Nigeria deports 700 immigrants in sect crackdown
04 Nov 2010 15:35:06 GMT
Source: Reuters
* Immigrants from Niger, Cameroon, Chad
* Security tightened after spate of recent attacks
By Ibrahim Mshelizza
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Hundreds of immigrants have been deported from northern Nigeria back to neighbouring countries as part of a security crackdown on a radical Islamic sect, a senior immigration official said on Thursday.
Suspected members of the Boko Haram sect have been blamed for torching police stations and carrying out fatal sniper attacks on police officers and local officials in the remote northeast of Africa's most populous country.
Around 700 migrants from Niger, Cameroon and Chad have been expelled amid fears the sect may be drawing members from outside Nigeria, said Babayo Alkali, the top immigration official in Maiduguri, capital of the northeastern state of Borno.
"With the recent security threat in the state and approaching election, we had to embark on an exercise to clear the state of all illegal aliens," Alkali said.
"Some foreigners were implicated in the Boko Haram security breach so we had to act," he said.
Alkali said those deported, some of whom said they were visiting relatives, had been found to lack the necessary paperwork to stay in Nigeria. He did not say whether they had been found to have any links with Boko Haram.
Boko Haram is calling for sharia (Islamic law) to be implemented across Nigeria, a country of 140 million people that is roughly divided into a mostly Christian south and largely Muslim north. A dozen northern states have introduced the religious code over the last decade.
The sect first gained wide attention last July, when it launched an uprising in Maiduguri that led to clashes with security forces in which up to 800 people were killed.
RETALIATION
Some northern Nigerians say the recent resurgence in violence is a form of revenge against the authorities. Police officers, government officials and traditional leaders have been killed in a wave of attacks that began in August.
Nigeria is due to hold a fiercely contested presidential election within the next six months and security concerns are high. Some northern factions within the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) are opposed to the candidacy of President Goodluck Jonathan, who is a southern Christian.
The dusty and impoverished north is not the only area of concern.
There are also fears that an amnesty for rebel groups in the oil-producing Niger Delta, hundreds of kilometres away on the country's southern coast, is starting to fray.
The amnesty has brought more than a year of relative peace in a region where militants had for years attacked oil facilities and kidnapped Nigerian and foreign employees of firms including Royal Dutch Shell
A bomb attack in the capital Abuja on Oct. 1, which killed at least 10 people, was claimed by rebels from the region, home to sub-Saharan Africa's largest oil and gas reserves.
The security services said last month they would boost the army and police presence, including using helicopter patrols, in Borno in a bid to contain Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful" in the local Hausa language. (For more Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://af.reuters.com/ ) (Writing by Shyamantha Asokan; Editing by Nick Tattersall)
=======
Islamic sect claims Nigeria attacks, toll at 8628 Dec 2010
Source: reuters // Abdulwahab Muhammed
A man mourns at a mass grave for the victims of religious riots, in Nigeria's central city of Jos, December 27, 2010. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde
* Boko Haram claims bomb, church attacks
* Christmas Eve bombings, ensuing attacks kill at least 86
* Two arrested with dynamite, weapons
BAUCHI, Nigeria, Dec 28 (Reuters) - A radical Islamist sect said on Tuesday it was behind bombings in central Nigeria and attacks on churches in the northeast of the country that led to the deaths of at least 86 people.
The police said on Tuesday that 80 people were killed in Christmas Eve bomb attacks and clashes two days later between Muslim and Christian youths in central Nigeria, while more than 100 are wounded in hospitals.
"We have recovered 80 dead bodies so far in Jos," Daniel Gambo, an official at the Nigerian emergency management agency said late on Monday.
In a separate incident, six people were killed when petrol bombs were thrown late on Friday at churches in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, in Borno state.
"O Nations of the World, be assured that the attacks in Suldaniyya (Jos) and Borno on the eve of Christmas were carried out by us Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awatu Wal Jihad, under the leadership of Abu Muhammad, Abubakar bin Muhammad Shekau," a statement said on the group's website.
The radical Islamic group Boko Haram has previously used the name Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awatu Wal Jihad.
President Goodluck Jonathan has pledged to hunt down those responsible for the bombings but the government has not said who it believes was behind the attacks.
A government spokesman was not immediately available to comment on the claim.
BOKO HARAM
Boko Haram, which wants Islamic sharia law more widely applied across Africa's most populous nation, staged an uprising in Maiduguri last year which led to clashes with security forces in which as many as 800 people were killed.
The chief of defence staff said two suspects had been arrested on Monday in Jos, the capital of Plateau state, in possession of dynamite and dangerous weapons.
Armed police patrolled the streets in Jos and surrounding areas on Tuesday to deter further unrest.
Religious violence flares up sporadically in the central "Middle Belt" of Africa's most populous nation, where the largely Muslim north meets the mostly Christian south.
But co-ordinated bomb attacks have not usually featured in previous violence and the governor of Plateau state has said the attacks were politically motivated.
(Additional reporting by Joe Brock, Shuaibu Mohammed and Felix Onuah; writing by Joe Brock; editing by Angus MacSwan)
====
Blast kills 30 in Nigerian capitalSat Jan 1, 2011 12:40AM
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A woman who lost a relative in a bombing (center) mourns at the Asokoro General Hospital, Abuja, Nigeria on Friday, December 31, 2010. A bombing in the Nigerian capital Abuja has killed at least 30 people and injured several more at a market inside a military barracks.
Police say the blast occurred at the Sani Abacha barracks, where people had gathered to celebrate New Year's Eve on Friday night. Local journalists say injured people are being carried away from the scene.
"There was a bomb blast inside the Mammy market. The bomb exploded where people were eating and drinking," the civil defense corps chief for the capital, Rabi Saidu, told reporters.
According to police spokesman Moshood Jimoh, a report that a second bombing targeted a church in Karu, a suburb of Abuja, was a false alarm.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan ordered the country's security agencies to apprehend the perpetrators of the attack.
Nigeria's military chief, Air Marshal Oluseyi Petirin, said, "It's unfortunate that some people planted a bomb where people were relaxing."
The cause of the explosion is not yet known, and no more details are available.
A week ago, multiple bomb attacks were committed by unknown assailants in the central city of Jos and the northeastern city of Maiduguri.
=================
Sect attacks leaves 150 dead in Nigeria
November 6, 2011 - 10:26AM
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At least 150 people died in a "heinous" wave of gun and bomb attacks in northern Nigeria carried out by the Islamist Boko Haram sect.
President Goodluck Jonathan condemned the assaults, which officials said included at least five suicide bomb blasts and "directed security agencies to ensure the arrest of perpetrators of these heinous acts", a statement from his spokesman, Reuben Abati, said.
As corpses piled up in the morgue, a rescue agency official said the body count stood at 150.
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"I was involved in the evacuation of corpses to the morgue. I personally counted 150 bodies," the official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said at the hospital.
He said some families had already collected their loved ones for burial, reducing the number to 97 by end of the day.
An AFP reporter counted 97 corpses still in the mortuary.
The Red Cross earlier said the death toll stood at 63, while police spoke of 53, of whom 11 were members of its force.
A member of Nigeria's Islamist Boko Haram sect yesterday claimed responsibility.
Spokesman Abul Qaqa said: "We are responsible for the attack in [north-eastern] Borno [state] and Damaturu.
"We will continue attacking federal government formations until security forces stop persecuting our members and vulnerable civilians."
The bomb and gun attacks, targeted police stations, an army base and churches in the cities of Damaturu, Maiduguri and two other small towns.
The military deployed to curb the violence in Maiduguri said there were four suicide bomb attacks in parts of the city, including an army base and on the outskirts of Maiduguri.
The attackers bombed their targets then took on the security forces in gun battles in Damaturu.
Local police chief Suleimon Lawal said: "It was a suicide bomb attack at one of our buildings. The attacker came in a Honda CRV and rammed into the building and explosives exploded."
An AFP reporter said no office was still standing at the police HQ which was still smouldering some 24 hours after the attack. Three burnt cars lay in front of the building.
Police have been placed on red alert nationwide.
Militants from Boko Haram, whose name means "Western Education Is Sin" in the regional Hausa language, have in the past targeted police and military, community and religious leaders, as well as politicians.
The sect, which wants to see the establishment of an Islamic state in northern Nigeria, staged an uprising which was brutally put down by security forces in 2009.
Nigeria's more than 160 million people are divided almost in half between Muslims and Christians, living roughly in the north and south of the country respectively. Regions where they overlap are prey to frequent tensions.
AFP
Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/world/sect-attacks-leaves-150-dead-in-nigeria-20111106-1n1o7.html#ixzz1ctOYZyHg
=============== INTERVIEW-Ex-warlord warns of S.Nigeria backlash at Boko Haram 02 Jan 2012 19:40 Source: Reuters // Reuters * Niger Delta militant says talks with Islamists impossible * Warns of a southern uprising against northern insurgency By Austin Ekeinde PORT HARCOURT, Nigeria, Jan 2 (Reuters) - Southern Nigerians could take up arms to fight northern Boko Haram Islamists, and are holding back only out of respect for the president, a former militant leader from the oil-rich Niger Delta said on Monday. Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, a Muslim who led a rebellion in the delta until a peace deal with the government in 2004, said bomb attacks by Boko Haram could provoke retaliation by mostly Christian southerners, including those living in the delta. President Goodluck Jonathan has already declared a state of emergency in parts of the north which Boko Haram targeted in Christmas Day bomb attacks, including one against a church near Abuja that killed 37 people. The attacks, and their spread from the north into other parts of the country, have raised the prospect of sectarian and regional violence escalating in a country about evenly divided between mainly southern Christians and mainly northern Muslims. Asked if northerners could be targeted by some from the majority Christian south, he replied: "It is seconds away ... Nigeria is on the precipice of a civil war." "For Niger Delta people to take up arms is just a minute away. It's just Goodluck that is holding us back," said Asari, who is from Jonathan's southern, mainly Christian Ijaw tribe, but who converted to Islam. "We have all reached the extreme. There is nothing anybody can do about it except we fight." Asari's former group, the Niger Delta People's Volunteer Force, managed to push oil prices to record highs in 2004 with its constant attacks and threats against oil production in the delta's swampy creeks. Since then, peace deals with the region's warlords have pacified the delta, and Boko Haram in the north has become the number one threat to Nigeria's security. Full-bearded, shaven-headed, and wearing an ash-coloured Islamic robe, Asari paused to read some Facebook posts from his iPad about the Christmas Day bombs. Asari said he was sceptical that the government could negotiate with moderate members of Boko Haram via "back channels" as National Security Adviser General Owoye Andrew Azazi suggested in an interview with Reuters. Sitting in his large flat in the southeastern city of Port Harcourt, Asari said the group's faceless nature, an issue General Azazi acknowledged, made talks impossible. "If you cannot identify the people who are carrying out these attacks, how can you dialogue with them, interact with them, and bring them round the table?" he said. In any case, such extreme violence meant the time for talks had passed, he said. "You cannot ask government to negotiate now. On what basis? The government should...rein these people in, or the people will resort to self-help," said Asari, who stressed where his loyalties lay despite being a Muslim. "Anybody that wants to start any revolution in Goodluck's time, we the Ijaw will pull down that revolution," he said. (Writing by Tim Cocks) =======================
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