Islam In Action:70 dead in clashes in Isalmic northern Nigeria
BAUCHI: Dozens more bodies were recovered after violent clashes between security forces and Islamists in northern Nigeria, bringing the death toll to around 70, a count at a hospital morgue showed on Wednesday.
An AFP reporter listed 42 bodies on the floor of the morgue in the city of Bauchi, all with bullet or machete wounds. Another 25 bodies, mostly young people including minors, had been placed in cold storage rooms.
A morgue employee told AFP “the bodies were brought in on Monday” after clashes erupted in Bauchi between suspected members of a radical Islamist sect and security forces.
Police late Monday said 38 people died in the fighting, including three members of the security forces.
Police forces across Africa’s most populous country have been placed on high alert in the aftermath of the clashes as part of a bid to forestall further violence.
The Kala-Kato sect, also known as Maitatsine, has been present in several Muslim-dominated states in northern Nigeria for decades.
It led religious uprisings in 1980 and 1992 which claimed thousands of lives in the northern cities of Kano and Yola.
The number of its followers is not known but estimated to run into several thousands.
Sect leader Badamasi Saleh Alkaleri was among those killed by security forces, the police said.
Soldiers and police deployed across Bauchi had withdrawn by early Wednesday as life began returning to normal.
“Peace has been restored to the Zango area which was rocked by violence on Monday. However our men are on high alert in the event of any breakdown of law and order,” Bauchi state police commissioner Atiku Kafur told AFP.
The Red Cross was organising burials for the victims.
Read the whole story at Times of India
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment