“I was on the roadside and I just heard a ‘boom’. As I came back, I saw the building of the police headquarters crashing down and I ran for my life.”
“We have the legitimate right to defend ourselves. We’re also saying today that we will do whatever it takes. We are working things out between ourselves.”
Ayo Oritsejafor, head of the Christian Association of Nigeria, told his followers that they should do what they have to in order to defend themselves from “ethnic and religious cleansing”.
The killing of dozens of Christians in recent days has raised fears of a wider religious conflict and ignited anger among Christian leaders, who have compared the attacks by the radical Islamist group Boko Haram to the run-up to the country’s 1960s civil war. (source)
“The first attack took place [on Thusday] night when four people were killed, and as people gathered this morning to discuss the matter and deliberate, gunmen suddenly appeared on the scene and started shooting and another 10 to 12 people were killed there.”
Hundreds of Christians have begun to flee northern Nigeria after attacks, thought to be linked to the radical Islamist group Boko Haram, left at least 33 people dead since Thursday Al Jazeera Correspondent, Ahmed Idris reports.
Nigeria’s government, which last week declared a state of emergency in four of the worst-hit areas, put into effect a 24-hour curfew on Saturday in the northeastern Adamawa state. (Read More)
Nigeria: A man covers his hands in crude oil during an anti-Shell protest after a spill at the Bonga oilfield. (EPA via Guardian)
Members of the emergency services work at the scene of an explosion at a police station after a suspected suicide bomber was killed and many vehicles were destroyed in Nigeria’s capital Abuja on Thursday, June 16. A suicide bomber died in the incident and many vehicles were destroyed,” a spokesman for NEMA told Reuters. (Afolabi Sotunde)
Nigeria: A mosque was set on fire in Kano and the Red Cross said youths also torched churches and homes.(Reuters)
“I don’t want to accuse anybody but we believe that people must be behind this”
Many killed in northern Nigeria unrest as president calls for calm
“There has been trouble in at least Kaduna, Katsina, Kano, Adamawa, Niger and Jigawa. Churches, mosques and houses have been burned,” Red Cross official Umar Mairiga said.
“A lot of people have been killed but early reports are still coming in and we are not in a position to give a figure. All our volunteers are on standby so when the situation calms down they can be deployed,” he told Reuters.
Nigeria: Running battles in the Muslim northern city of Kano as Goodluck Jonathan nears victory in Nigeria’s presidential election. (Seyllou Diallo)
Nigeria’s Ethnic Divides
Nigeria’s 160 million people are divided between numerous ethno-linguistic groups and also along religious lines. Broadly, the Hausa-Fulani people based in the north are mostly Muslims. The Yorubas of the south-west are divided between Muslims and Christians, while the Igbos of the south-east and neghbouring groups are mostly Christian or animist. The Middle Belt is home to hundreds of groups with different beliefs, and around Jos there are frequent clashes between Hausa-speaking Muslims and Christian members of the Berom community.
Nigeria: A Nation Divided
The People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has won all elections since the end of military rule in 1999. It won two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states last time. To win at the first round, a candidate needs at least 25% of the vote in two-thirds of Nigeria’s 36 states.
“We have evidence in our hands that the computers (used in the voting process), were programmed to produce rigged results”
Oil is seen on the creek water’s surface near an illegal oil refinery in Ogoniland, outside Port Harcourt, in Nigeria’s Delta region.
Oil firm projects showcased ahead of Nigerian poll
According to the AP: Shell oil co. flew journalists in a helicopter over a cleared area in the delta where locals ran makeshift refineries turning stolen crude oil tapped from pipelines into diesel and kerosene. The company blamed nearly all of its oil spills in 2009 on sabotage from thieves and militants. Environmentalists and community activists routinely blame Shell for the spills, pointing at the company’s aging pipelines and poor cleanup efforts. Full story.
A view of an illegal oil refinery is seen in Ogoniland outside Port Harcourt in Nigeria’s Delta region March 24, 2011.Crude oil thieves — known locally as “bunkerers” — have been a fact of life for years in Africa’s biggest oil and gas industry, puncturing pipelines and costing Nigeria and foreign oil firms millions of dollars in lost revenues each year. (Akintunde Akinleye / Reuters)
