Residents venture out after Nigerian unrest
Posted by African Press International on August 1, 2009
Smoke rises from Maiduguri prison after it was set on fire by members of a local Islamic group in Yobe state July 27, 2009. The group which wants a wider adoption of Islamic law across Africa’s most populous nation have burned churches, a police station and a prison and clashed with the security forces in Bauchi, Borno, Kano and Yobe states
MAIDUGURI
Residents ventured onto the streets of the Nigerian city of Maiduguri today after the authorities cleared the bodies of hundreds of victims of days of clashes with a radical Islamic sect.
State government and Health ministry officials finished collecting corpses, some of them swollen after lying in the streets for days, onto open trucks overnight and the security forces withdrew road blocks around the city.
“People are outside starting to go about their normal business. The bodies that were littered all over were finally cleared last night,” Aliiyu Maikano, northeastern disaster management officer for the Nigerian Red Cross, told Reuters.
Death toll
At least 300 have been killed in states around northern Nigeria during almost a week of rioting by followers of Boko Haram, a militant sect which wants a wider adoption of sharia (Islamic law) across Africa’s most populous nation.
The authorities are hoping the killing of sect leader Mohammed Yusuf, 39, who was shot dead while in police detention in Maiduguri last Thursday, will bring an end to violence.
“I urge everyone to resume their normal lives now that the unfortunate Boko Haram uprising has been crushed,” said Ali Modu Sheriff, governor of Borno state, of which Maiduguri is the capital.
“The security agencies shall continue house-to-house searches for members of the sect in order to bring them to justice and I urge you all to cooperate with them,” he told state radio.
Hundreds of people gathered yesterday to see Yusuf’s corpse, laid on the ground in front of Maiduguri police headquarters alongside the bodies of other presumed Boko Haram members.
Officials have said Yusuf died in a shoot-out while trying to escape detention but human rights groups have condemned what appeared to have been an execution-style killing.
Number of injured
Maikano said around 100 people were still being treated at two hospitals in Maiduguri for gunshot wounds, machete blows, knife wounds and beatings. Scores more have been discharged.
Thousands of people who fled their homes have also started to return, although the Red Cross was still looking after around 22 families whose houses were destroyed in the unrest.
The uprising began last Sunday when members of the group – loosely modelled on the Taliban in Afghanistan and whose name means “Western education is sinful” – were arrested in Bauchi state on suspicion of plotting to attack a police station.
Yusuf’s supporters, armed with machetes, knives, home-made hunting rifles and petrol bombs, then rioted in several states across northern Nigeria, attacking churches, police stations, prisons and government buildings. (Reuters)
source.nation.ke
