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Nigeria bleeds from an orgy of weekend killings from North to South

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Bloody Nigeria

Bloody NigeriaFestival of Death in Nigeria

Compilled by SaharaReporters

A security source in Adamawa State has just phoned SaharaReporters that suspected members of the militant Islamist sect, Boko Haram, attacked a church and a market at a town bordering the Republic of Cameroon. The source disclosed that ten people lost their lives in the attacks.

Our source said the suspected Boko Haram militants struck in Gila, a small town located in Maiha local government area of Adamawa State. The village, which is close to the border with Cameroon, is about 30 kilometers from Maiha, the headquarters of the local government council.

 

The security source stated that a few heavily armed men opened fire in a market in the town, killing six persons. Soon after, they reportedly attacked worshipers at a church called EYN Church. They gunned four worshipers to death, leaving more than ten with varying gunshot wounds. The assailants then fled across the border into Cameroon, said our source.
The Adamawa State Police Command confirmed the attacks at the church and the market. The command’s spokesman, Mohammed Ibrahim, said the wounded had been rushed to a nearby hospital.

A military source revealed to SaharaReporters that unknown gunmen has struck in troubled Southern Kaduna and killed one person. The incident according to the source, occurred in a public boarding secondary school located in Fadan Kaje, Zangon Kataf local government area of Kaduna State. The source said that this is the second time the village is coming under attack, and soldiers are presently in the area as tension grips neighboring villages.

Bareley one month after an ambush on a convoy of 50 policemen on escort duty, gunmen suspected to be ex-militants have reportedly killed eight persons in Lorbia community of Southern Ijaw Local Government Council Area. That is the same Bayelsa community where 12 policemen lost their lives on April 6.

It was gathered that among those killed were five ex-militant youths who embraced amnesty under the leadership of Pastor Rebuen Wilson, a former militant leader. Wilson reportedly lost his 37-year old younger brother, Judah Benaibi Wilson, in the attack. Security sources have described the incident as a clash of rival gangs. Contacted, Mr. Alex Akigbe Police spokesman for Bayelsa Command said that while the command has received a report of the shoot-out, he was unlikely to have a detailed briefing until tomorrow.

The Media Coordinator of the Joint Task Force in Niger Delta, Lt. Col. Onyeama Nwachukwu, also confirmed the incident but said that the casualty figures were still unclear. “At about 2am on Saturday, there was an armed collision between two armed groups at Lorbia 1 in Southern Ijaw Area which led to the death of unspecified number of persons,” he said, adding that while the JTF was cordoning a search and rescue operation, the bodies of the dead were yet to be recovered from the waters.
The victims were allegedly lured into the creek and then shot dead by gunmen.

At the Yenagoa home of Wilson, sympathizers were seen discussing after his brother confirmed his loss.
Nwachukwu said the JTF has so far recovered items that include two Ak 47 rifles, One General Purpose Machine Gun, six AK47 magazines, and one speed boat.

39 Killed in Taraba as Muslim Fulani Youths unite to fight Jukun Christians in street battles

Reported by BBC

At least 39 people have been killed in Nigeria’s Taraba state as clashes broke out between Christians and Muslims at a funeral, say reports.

Residents said Friday’s violence broke out as a funeral procession for a traditional leader passed through a Muslim area of Wukari town. A 24-hour curfew has been imposed on the town by police. Tensions have been high in Wukari since February, when a row over a football dispute set off sectarian rioting. Local reports say that Friday’s funeral was being held by the predominantly Christian Jukun ethnic group. As the mourners passed through a Muslim area of the town they began chanting slogans which angered the residents there, say the reports.

One aid worker told the AFP news agency that 20 bodies had been collected so far. “We are still going round the town in search of more bodies,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Al Jazeera’s Yvonne Ndege, reporting from the northeastern city of Maiduguri, said police told her the fighting started at 6am local time during the funeral procession of a traditional chief from a predominantly Christian area. “Apparently the Christian mourners were chanting slogans that Muslims viewed as an act of provocation,” Ndege said. Local residents told AFP that the death toll could rise.

“Thirty-two houses have also been destroyed in the violence,” Kwaji said of the unrest which has prompted authorities to impose an indefinite all-round curfew in the predominantly Christian city. He added that 40 suspects were arrested in the aftermath of the violence. State information commissioner Emmanuel Bello said that extra troops were deployed to the city on Saturday to bolster security.

Rising tensions

At least 39 people have died and 30 others injured in fighting between Christian and Muslim groups in central Nigeria’s Taraba state, prompting a round-the-clock curfew, police have said. Scores of houses were set ablaze and destroyed during the clashes in the town of Wukari, where the fighting started during a funeral procession apparently over an argument between members of the Jukun ethnic group and local Hausa and Fulani youths.

The clashes quickly degenerated into pitched battles with guns and machetes. The fact that Fulani settlers tend to be Muslim and other ethnic groups, including the Jukun, are mostly Christian, sometimes gives the conflict a religious dimension.
“We have so far compiled a death toll of 39 people while 30 others were seriously injured,” state police spokesman Joseph Kwaji told AFP news agency on Saturday.

Football clashes

Joseph Kwaji, a spokesman for the Taraba state police, said the situation was now under control and police were “awaiting a comprehensive report”. He said another 30 people had been seriously injured.

The BBC’s Will Ross, in Lagos, says the Jukun ethnic group is in dispute with the Muslim Hausa Fulani group over who the original inhabitants of the town are, and so who has the right to own land.

The violence came a day after a panel was set up to investigate clashes in February in which several people died.
That violence was sparked by a row over which ethnic group was entitled to play on a football pitch in the town.
There is a long history of tensions between Nigerian Muslims, who mainly live in the north, and Christians who mostly live in the south along with followers of traditional animist religions.

But there have been increasing outbursts of violence, amid an Islamist insurgency in the north which has forced thousands of people to flee their homes. Last month, almost 200 people were killed in the northern town of Baga, as the military attempted to tackle the Boko Haram Islamist extremist group. The army has put the number killed at 37.

Rights groups have urged the government to investigate allegations of soldiers using excessive force in the town and destroying more than 2,000 homes.

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