Community | July 31, 2009 | Comment on this video (3)

Good Morning! Nigeria - how many insurgencies can you have?

afitzgerald
Hey guys - Interesting story this morning - a bloody conclusion to Nigeria's newest insurgent problem, this time in the North of the country. This week there have been numerous reports about conflict in a town called Maiduguri between government forces and this fundamentalist Islamic sect.

Well today the government said things were all cleared up - namely that they had assaulted the sect's compound in an all-out military assault. Also, Nigeria reported that the group's leader Mohammad Yusuf was killed (in battle? in custody? it doesn't seem clear).

Nigeria is an important country when you talk about Africa. It's a major oil producer, an economic power, and very populous. So to see Nigeria having such trouble with homegrown insurgents on the one hand, and to see them responding with such heavy-handed tactics on the other - is worrying to some.

What do you think? Are there better ways Nigeria could handle these problems? Is this appropriate?
  1. groups:
    Community,   News_Featured
  2. tags:
    News,  Editor's Picks,  News_Featured,  Nigeria,  1 more
  3.     
    |
    Embed video:
    |

3 comments // Good Morning! Nigeria - how many insurgencies can you have? // Video

  • MoonLoon
    • 0
      MoonLoon  

    • Boko Haram was striving for Sharia Law, which actually exists in some of the Northern states. It has been reported that a police station was attacked, thus initiating the extreme use of force. 11 Catholic Churches burned, 800 to 3,000 killed, and buried in a mass grave, most likely to prevent counting the exact number of dead. When the army is called to action in Nigeria, you either run or you die, Christians, Muslims, women, children, it does not matter. Once the gunfire starts everyone is a target.
      It is interesting to note the ferocity used to put down this sect, while the Niger militants (oil thieves) are handled with kid gloves.

    • 2 years ago
  • shanklinmike
  • afitzgerald
    • 0
      afitzgerald  
    • Image

    • Coverage from the NY Times:

      "Nigerian security forces on Thursday confirmed the death of the leader of a fundamentalist Islamic sect in the city of Maiduguri, apparently ending a fierce five-day campaign against the group that may have left hundreds dead across northern Nigeria.

      A military spokesman would not say exactly how the leader, Mohammed Yusuf, was killed, though news agencies widely reported that he was killed after being captured. Human Rights Watch quickly issued a statement saying that “the killing in police custody of criminal suspects has become an extremely worrying pattern in Nigeria.”"

    • 2 years ago
more from Community:
from the community

top videos