Teaching Comparative Government and Politics

Monday, July 27, 2009

Unrest in northern Nigeria

Nigerian Islamist attacks spread
Islamist militants have staged three co-ordinated attacks in northern Nigeria leaving dozens dead, meaning about 150 have been killed in two days.

A BBC reporter has counted 100 bodies, mostly of militants, near the police headquarters in Maiduguri, Borno State, where hundreds are fleeing their homes...

Some of the militants follow a preacher who campaigns against Western schools.

The preacher, Mohammed Yusuf, says Western education is against Islamic teaching...

Sharia law is in place across northern Nigeria, but there is no history of al-Qaeda-linked violence in the country.

Nigeria's 150 million people are split almost equally between Muslims and Christians and the two groups generally live peacefully side by side, despite occasional outbreaks of communal violence...

Correspondents say the group is seen locally as a fringe group and has aroused suspicion for its recruitment of young men, and its belief that Western education, Western culture and science are sinful.



Analysis by Caroline Duffield, BBC News, Nigeria:
Tensions are never far from the surface in northern Nigeria. Poverty and competition for scarce resources, along with ethnic, cultural and religious differences have all fuelled sudden violence.

But the latest violence is not between communities, it involves young men from religious groups, arming themselves and attacking local police.

Fringe religious groups in Nigeria have claimed links to the Taliban before - individuals have also been accused of links to al-Qaeda. But Nigeria is very different to countries like Mali or Algeria, where groups such as al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb operate.

The idea of radical Islamist militants gaining a serious foothold in Nigeria is usually dismissed, because of the strength of local identities and traditions.


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4 Comments:

At 8:11 AM, Blogger Ken Wedding said...

Nigerian militants 'under siege'

"A group of Nigerian Islamist militants is barricaded inside a district in the city of Maiduguri, after two days of violence in the country's north..."

 
At 7:21 AM, Blogger Ken Wedding said...

Nigerian Troops Surround Militant’s House

"Nigerian security forces have surrounded the house of a leader of an Islamic sect in a town in northeastern Nigeria, in an effort to halt an uprising by the sect that has led to hundreds of deaths in the region, local news reports said Tuesday...

"Paul Lubeck, a political sociologist at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who specializes in Nigeria and Islam, said the violence had its roots in Nigeria’s severe economic difficulties...

"'This particular movement is a movement of the dispossessed, the lumpen,' he said. 'It’s not the major Islamic movement in the country. This is an attack on establishment Islam.'..."

 
At 7:02 PM, Blogger Ken Wedding said...

Detained Nigeria sect leader dies

"The leader of an Islamic sect blamed for days of deadly violence in Nigeria has been killed in police custody, police officials have said.

"Officials said Mohammed Yusuf was shot while trying to escape...

"BBC News website Africa editor Joseph Winter says Nigeria's security forces have a terrible reputation for brutality and human rights groups accuse them of frequent extra-judicial killings..."

 
At 8:07 AM, Blogger Ken Wedding said...

More Than 700 Killed In Nigeria Clashes

"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..."

 

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