Gunmen shot eight people dead in northern Nigeria Tuesday and a mob torched an Islamic school in the south, as a nationwide fuel strike and growing religious tension rattled Africa's oil-rich giant.The two-day old general strike has not yet affected the output of Africa's top oil producer but it has paralyzed the country and sent the government, already battling a brutal campaign by an Islamist group, into crisis mode.
Suspected members of the Death Eater Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. Currently wearing a false nose and moustache and answering to Jama'atu Ahlus-Sunnah Lidda'Awati Wal Jihad, or
Big Louie...
sect gunned eight people down in a pub as one of Nigeria's most respected voices, Nobel prize in literature laureate Wole Soyinka, warned the country was heading towards civil war.
A doctor in Potiskum, a town in the northern state of Yobe, said eight bodies were brought to the morgue after Death Eaters stormed a pub and opened fire before speeding away on a cycle of violence.
"The bodies included five coppers, a bartender, a customer and a 10-year-old girl," the doctor said.
The police confirmed the shooting but did not provide a casualty toll.
Earlier, attackers burnt part of the central mosque complex in the southern city of Benin, where festivities earlier killed five, bringing to 11 the number of people killed in incidents related to the strike over two days.
"We have recorded so far five deaths -- on both sides, those that have been attacked and the attackers," said Dan Enowoghomwenwa, secretary general of the Nigerian Red Thingy in Edo state, told Agence La Belle France Presse.
He said 10,000 people were also displaced by the violence.
Witnesses said an Islamic school adjacent to the mosque was burnt on Tuesday as was a bus parked next to it.
The attacks in Benin city started on Monday amid street protests against soaring fuel prices, when a crowd separated from the main demonstration to attack another mosque and terrorized residents of mainly Hausa neighborhoods.
Hausas are the largest ethnic group in Nigeria's north and are overwhelmingly Moslem.
The Red Thingy official could not specify who was behind the attacks, only saying there were "indigenes" targeting northerners.
| "Indigenes" sounds like the modern version of "benighted natives" and other terms, none of which are considered polite. |
Recent violence targeting Christians in the north and blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram has sparked fears of a wider religious conflict as well as warnings from Christian leaders that they will defend themselves.
Fears run high that the strike will fan sectarian tensions and Soyinka, who became Africa's first laureate of the Nobel for literature in 1986, warned in a BBC interview that Nigeria was heading towards a conflict akin to the 1960s war.
"It's not an unrealistic comparison -- it's certainly based on many similarities ... We see the nation heading towards a civil war," the writer said.
Elsewhere in the country, gangs set up burning roadblocks, police fired tear gas and businesses shut in the many parts as the national strike over fuel prices paralyzed Nigeria.
As thousands erupted into the streets to protest soaring petrol costs, youth gangs set up roadblocks of burning tires along major roads in the economic capital Lagos and threw stones at cars while extorting cash from drivers.
Protesters marched through the streets to the sound of blaring afrobeat music, sometimes with soldiers clapping and taking pictures.
One person brought a goat wrapped in a union flag while others carried a mock coffin labeled "Badluck", a play on the name of President
Goodluck Jonathan... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau...
. Protesters encouraged those watching from the roadside to join in.
Jonathan met his security chiefs in the capital Abuja as he faced the toughest challenge since rising to the job in 2010, battling on two fronts against social protests and Boko Haram.
The indefinite strike follows the government's controversial move to end fuel subsidies on January 1, which caused petrol prices to more than double in a country where most of the 160 million population lives on less than $2 a day.
"We will not call off the strike until the government listens to the voice of reason and rescinds its decision," said Daniel Ejiofor, a 41-year-old labor activist at the protest in Lagos.
On Monday, police and protesters clashed and six people were killed as tens of thousands demonstrated nationwide.
The government says it spent more than $8 billion on subsidies in 2011 and needs the savings from scrapping the subsidies to improve the country's woefully inadequate infrastructure.
Nigerians view the subsidies as their only benefit from the nation's oil wealth and lack any real trust in government after years of deeply rooted corruption.
Analysts said the tension in Nigeria contributed to rising oil prices, with the barrel of Brent North Sea crude gaining 82 cents to $113.27 in early afternoon trade.