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| Africa Subsaharan |
| Nigeria: Security boosted in four northern states |
| 2009-07-29 |
| [ADN Kronos] Four Nigerian states imposed a security clampdown on Tuesday following two days of Islamist-linked violence in the north of the country that left over one hundred people dead. Soldiers were reported to have set up road blocks and imposed dusk-to-dawn curfews in affected areas in Yobe, Kano, Borno and Plateau states. Islamist militants staged attacks on police and government offices and there have been reports of youths armed with machetes and guns killing police officers and civilians at random. Hardline Muslim group Boko Haram attacked a police station in the town of Bauchi, northern Nigeria, early on Sunday. Police repelled the attackers, who were wielding automatic weapons and grenades, but over 40 people were believed to have died and dozens more to have been injured. The violence then spread to three other towns. Further attacks then took place in Yobe and Borno states overnight. Boko Haram militants are said to oppose anything western including western-style education. They accuse the Bauchi state government of preventing them from publicly practising their religion or seeking converts. The group recruits young men and wants to impose Islamic Sharia law, across the whole of Nigeria Roadblocks have been erected and curfews were in the towns worst hit by the clashes. Eyewitnesses told the BBC that police stations had been attacked and civilians pulled from their cars and shot dead. More than 100 bodies, most of them militants, were reported to have been laid out near the police headquarters in the town worst affected by the violence - Maiduguri in Borno state. Nigerian police said they have arrested almost 200 fighters. |
| Posted by:Fred |