At least 46 people died in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno when a militia formed by mainly Christian villages clashed with Boko Haram Islamists.
Islamist gunmen who attacked the villages of Attangara and Agapalwa in the Gwoza district of Borno yesterday were ambushed by a local militia that killed 37 of them, Titus
Ponna, a church minister and chairman of the state chapter of the Christian Association of Nigeria, said today by phone from the state capital, Maiduguri. At least nine villagers died in the fighting, he said.“These villages are over 80 percent Christian and the Boko Haram have in the last two weeks attacked them, killing many villagers,” Ponna said. “But yesterday, they were able to defend themselves and killed 37 Boko Haram members.”
The Islamist group, whose name means “western education is a sin,” is waging a campaign of violence, in which more than 4,000 people have died in the last five years, to impose Shariah, or Islamic law, in Africa’s biggest oil producer and most populous country. The militants abducted more than 200 schoolgirls from a boarding school last month, sparking global outrage and prompting the U.S. and U.K. to send teams to help Nigeria rescue them.
President Goodluck Jonathan said gains made by the country during 15 years of unbroken democratic rule are threatened by growing Islamist militant attacks.
Source: Bloomberg
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