Nigeria - sectarian violence

At least 43 people dead in Yobe, total deaths over 300

Article published on the 2009-07-29 Latest update 2009-07-29 15:03 TU

Smoke rises from Maiduguri prison in Nigeria on 27 July, 2009. More than 300 people have lost their lives in the violence that has hit four northern states.
(Photo: Reuters/Afolabi Sotunde)

At least 43 people were killed in fresh clashes between Nigerian security forces and Islamist fighters in Yobe state on Wednesday.

More than 300 people have now died in the violence that has hit four northern states since Sunday.

The battles in Yobe are reported to have centred around Potiskum, where fighters attacked a police station on Monday.

"The 43 corpses are on their way to the police headquarters in [Yobe state capital] Damaturu in two police vans," a police source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told the AFP news agency.

Khalifa Dikwa, professor of political science at the University of Maiduguri in Borno state, told RFI that he blamed the government for the current problems. He also criticised them for a heavy-handed reaction to the violence.

“The genesis of the problem is unemployment, injustice, lack of good governance,” he said.

“All the monies that are coming out appropriated, are they really reaching the people? What kind of water people are drinking? What kind of education people are getting? What kind of food people are eating? Is this democracy really for the people? These are questions government must answer.”

Dikwa was speaking from Maiduguri in Borno state, which he said was relatively calm on Wednesday afternoon.

“Three-quarters of Maiduguri is calm. People are just there but they can not go for their normal activities,” he said. “[The] Market is closed, banks are closed … Nobody knows when it will end.”