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Nigerian troops
have begun an assault on the home of
a radical Islamist leader in the
northern city of Maiduguri after
three days of violence.
Followers of Mohammed Yusuf
barricaded themselves in and around
the house after heavy fighting with
security forces sent to contain
rioting.
A BBC correspondent says gunfire
can be heard across Maiduguri.
At least 140 people are believed
to have been killed since the unrest
broke out on Sunday.
Nigeria's security services have
been flooding Maiduguri, the city
worst affected by the violence, the
BBC's Caroline Duffield reports.
They surrounded the area housing
the headquarters of Mohammed Yusuf's
group, known as Boko Haram. The
group is also referred to locally as
the "Taliban", though it has no
known links to the Afghan militants.
The group is being blamed for
violent attacks on police stations,
government buildings and civilians
across four states in Nigeria.
It is against Western education,
believes Nigeria's government is
being corrupted by Western ideas and
wants to see Islamic law imposed
across Nigeria.
In another development, Nigerian
Christian leaders said they had
received no reports of Christians
being targeted in the wave of
Islamist violence.
"As things stand, there is no
report of Christians being killed or
churches being attacked, but
religious leaders have called on the
government to protect law-abiding
citizens and religious structures,"
said Bishop Emmanuel Badejo,
chairman of the Social
Communications Commission of the
Nigerian bishops' conference.
State of alert
Explosions and gunshots could be
heard from the Doidamgari area,
where the Boko Haram have their
spiritual headquarters.
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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. |
President Umaru Yar'Adua ordered
Nigeria's national security agencies
to take all necessary action to
contain and repel attacks by the
extremists.
"It is the government that has
moved to nip a potentially dangerous
problem in the bud," he said before
leaving on a visit to Brazil.
"These people have been
organising, penetrating our
societies, procuring arms, learning
how to make explosives and bombs to
disturb the peace and force abuse on
the rest of Nigerians.
"And I believe the operation we
have launched now will be an
operation that will contain them
once and for all."
While Mohammed Yusuf has his
family home in Doidamgari, the area
is also full of schools, homes,
shops and a mosque, our
correspondent says.
Residents and civilians have been
told to leave and there are reports
of armed men shooting from inside
the area.
Military aircraft filled with
soldiers have been seen taking off
from Jos in the neighbouring Plateau
state.
It is thought the troops are
meant to provide support for the
armoured vehicles and police already
on the ground.
Outside Maiduguri, there is a
heightened state of alert across the
northern states:
• In the city of Kano, police
arrested 53 people after an attack
on a police station outside the city
on Monday; police also shot and
killed three suspected militants as
they tried to reach Maiduguri
• In Sokoto, in the far
north-west, police arrested five men
said to have been caught in the act
of planning an attack
• In Bauchi, scene of the first
bloodshed on Sunday, 176 people
remain under arrest
Bodies in the streets
A BBC reporter counted about 100
bodies of residents and militants in
the streets of Maiduguri on Monday.
Maiduguri police said 103 had
died in the violence in the city,
including 90 members of Boko Haram,
eight police officers, three prison
officials and two soldiers.
At least 39 people were killed in
the violence in Bauchi.
Sharia law is in place across
northern Nigeria, but there is no
history of al-Qaeda-linked violence
in the country.
The country's 150 million people
are split almost equally between
Muslims in the north and Christians
in the south. |
