Chief of Defence Staff, Air Chief Marshal Oluseyi Petinrin
By Ibrahim Mshelizza
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria
Sat Jan 7, 2012 (Reuters)
Hundreds of Christians have begun to flee northern Nigeria after dozens were killed in a series of attacks by Islamist militants who issued an ultimatum to Christians to leave the mainly Muslim region or be killed, witnesses said
Saturday.
A Nigerian newspaper Tuesday published a warning from Boko Haram, a movement styled on the Taliban, that Christians had three days to get out of northern Nigeria.
Since the expiry of that ultimatum,attacks in towns in four states in northeastern Nigeria have left at least 37 people dead and hundreds of Christians are fleeing to the south, according to residents and a Red Cross official. Gunmen armed with Kalashnikovs have targeted church congregations and a group of mourners in a church hall.
Witnesses said some shops run by Christians from the Igbo ethnic group in towns hit by the violence, including Yola and Mubi, were closed Saturday and residents started to pack their belongings onto buses heading to southern regions. There are fears of reprisal attacks on Muslims.
Christian groups have asked their followers to remain peaceful but they concede that there is a risk of further violence. “We are very worried by the persistent killings. We have asked youths to remain calm.
We stand for a united Nigeria but there is a limit to human tolerance,” a spokesman for the Christian Association of Nigeria told Reuters.
President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the northeast and two other regions in Nigeria on December 31, in a bid to contain a growing insurgency by Boko Haram, which says it wants to apply Islamic sharia law across the country.
Heavily armed troops and tanks have been patrolling parts of northeast Nigeria since Jonathan made the announcement but it is a vast, remote region that has proven difficult to secure.
WAVE OF ASSAULTS
Gunmen opened fire in a hall in Mubi in Adamawa state on Friday where a group of Christians had gathered to mourn the deaths of those killed in an attack the previous day. The death toll in those attacks has reached 21, the Red Cross said on Saturday.
“Unknown gunmen in Mubi attacked and killed 3 people on Thursday night and Friday as people gathered to mourn the deaths, the gunmen believed to be the same attackers killed 18 people, totalling 21,” said Red Cross spokesman Umar Mairiga. Adamawa state is just south of Borno state, the homeland of Boko Haram,which has been behind almost daily attacks in recent months.
Local residents in the Adamawa state capital Yola said gunmen had fired on Christians leaving church Friday, killing eight people. The police confirmed the incident but were not able to give further comment or a death toll.
A spokesman for Boko Haram told reporters by phone that the sect was behind many of the attacks, including a shooting at a church service in northeast Gombe Thursday, which killed at least six people
“The Gombe attack on the Deeper Life Church and the attack on Igbos in Mubi and that of Yola were all carried out by us,” Abu Qaqa said by telephone to
reporters.
Elsewhere, a Christian couple were shot dead Friday in the Mairi ward of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state and the nucleus of Boko Haram’s violence since an uprising in 2009. “A Christian husband and wife have been killed in the night (Friday) in Maiduguri,” said Colonel Victor Ebhaleme, operations officer in the Borno joint task force.
In Yobe state, which sits on borders with Borno state and neighboring Niger, police said it killed some members of Boko Haram in a gun battle Friday night.
The Red Cross official said members of the Igbo ethnic group, who are usually Christian and a minority in the mainly Muslim north were fleeing the northeast. Most of the people killed in Mubi were Igbo, local residents said.
Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden,” claimed responsibility for a series of bomb attacks across Nigeria on Christmas Day, including one at a church near the capital Abuja that killed at least 37 people and wounded 57.
Nigeria’s population of around 160 million is split roughly equally between Christians and Muslims.Most Christians live in the south and most Muslims in the north, but many communities are mixed, and the majority live side by side in peace. The persistent violence adds to growing problems for Jonathan, who has been criticised for not getting a grip on Boko Haram’s insurgency.
Nationwide strikes are planned Monday against the government’s decision to end fuel subsidies from January 1, which caused the pump price to double.
ITS A PITY FOR AN ATTACK ON CHRISTIAN WORSHIPPERS. I AM AFRAID, CALARMY IS ON THE WAY… MAY THE LORD PROTECT BELIEVERS
Nigerians ABEG later dis fuel strikes, We are facing an EXISTENTIAL THREAT.
Both are existential threats. An intelligent government doesn’t start fights on two fronts. The fuel subsidy removal was slated for April, why was it done in January with absolutely no palliative measures put in place. Its just as if the government deliberately wants to fall and take Nigeria down with it
Yeah men, so lets cut off our nose to spite our face.
that could apply to the government as well as the people. In a situation such as this with 2 existential threats I guess the cleverest thing to do is to go to South Africa for ANC’s 100th birthday? Because if he’s not there Zuma will cry?
the killings are becoming unbearable. why would some idiots live in my village,worship and do business in my village without molestation,and my people are slaughtered daily in their own state?…abeg let retribution begin! enough of turning the other cheek. Enough!
THE SUN NEWSPAPERS
Sunday 8 November, 2011
NORTHERNERS FLEE ASABA (Excerpts)
Nigerians of northern extraction have started leaving Asaba, Delta State capital in droves for fear of reprisal attacks.
The exodus started on Thursday following threats of reprisal attacks by southerners on Muslims. There have been renewed activities of the dreaded Boko Haram Islamic sect which has ordered southerners to vacate the North or face further attacks
Following the order by the sect, speculations had been rife that southerners would retaliate by attacking Muslims in the South. Sunday Sun reports that Friday’s early morning attack on Muslims in Sapele mosque appeared to have given credence to the speculation.
Despite Delta State government’s assurance to Muslim community in the state of peaceful co- existence with other religious groups, the northerners seemed to have taken their destinies in their own hands.
When Sunday Sun visited the Hausa community in Asaba, they were moving in droves packing their luggage in ‘Ghana Must Go’ bags. Their destinations upon enquiry were Kano, Kaduna or Sokoto.
Chairman of Asaba Cattle Rearers Association, Alhaji Makuidi Ningi who spoke with our correspondent, expressed dismay over the seeming lack of security for Nigerians in every part of the country. He said they now live in fear of being attacked regretting lack of police patrol around the metropolis.
Ningi confirmed that the exodus of the northerners from Asaba started on Thursday and that it would continue till Monday when the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) is expected to commence a nationwide strike against the removal of oil subsidy. According to him, over 10,000 northerners had so far traveled out of Asaba as a proactive measure against reprisal attacks.
Meanwhile, markets in Asaba at the weekend witnessed an unprecedented rush as anxious buyers trooped shopped in preparation for the work-to-rule billed to commence tomorrow as directed by NLC in protest against the removal of fuel subsidy. They stormed the markets in efforts to stock-pile food stuff in their homes should the strike extend unnecessarily.