Tensions between Nigeria’s rival Muslim and Christian communities rose sharply on Tuesday, as Islamic leaders addressing a 10 000-strong crowd warned of an imminent backlash in the aftermath of a sectarian massacre.
Some Christian-run businesses were looted and burned in the northern city of Kano after Muslims rallied to demand action against an ethnic militia that last week attacked a rural town and slaughtered at least 200 Muslims.
During the protest, Islamic leaders issued President Olusegun Obasanjo — a Christian — with a seven-day ultimatum to put an end to the killings ”or bear the blame of whatever happens”.
”The massacre in Shendam burns the heart of every Muslim,” Umar Ibrahim Kabo, the chairperson of Kano’s Council of Ulema (Islamic scholars), told the crowd, which prayed at the Aliyu Bn Abitalib mosque before beginning an unruly protest march, punctuated by the burning of effigies and flags.
On Sunday last week a heavily armed gang of militants from the Christian Tarok ethnic group stormed the mainly Muslim market town of Yelwa, in the Shendam local government area of central Nigeria’s Plateau state, and killed between 200 and 300 people, according to government figures.
The Tarok argue that the Hausa and Fulani population of Yelwa are settlers on Christian land. Clashes between the two groups have already claimed hundreds of lives on both sides over the three years leading up to last week’s raid.
The attack has raised fears of Muslim revenge attacks in a country where more than 10 000 people have died in mob violence since the return of civilian rule in 1999 and where relations between Muslims and Christians — which each make up about half of the 130-million strong population — are often tense.
”We hereby give a seven-day ultimatum to President Obasanjo to take effective measures to bring these killings to an end or bear the blame of whatever happens after the ultimatum,” Kabo, who is also head of Kano state’s influential Sharia commission, told the crowd.
”Muslims are tired of the perennial massacres against their brethren in this country,” he declared, accusing Plateau state Governor Joshua Dariye of working with United States-led Western powers to exterminate Nigerian Muslims.
Dariye’s spokesperson denied the charge.
”The allegation is untrue. Neither Governor Joshua Dariye nor the state government has a hand in it [the attack]. On this, I am very certain. But if anybody has any reason to think otherwise, let him seek legal redress,” Dauda Lamba said by telephone from Plateau state’s capital, Jos.
Protesters burned effigies of US President George Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Dariye before marching to the office of Kano’s Islamist Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau, who addressed the crowd to cries of ”Allahu Akbar”, or ”God is great”.
”If these killings happening throughout the world and in Nigeria are committed to intimidate Muslims, we want to assure the perpetrators that it will only make us bolder,” he said, speaking, like Kabo before him, in the Hausa language of Nigeria’s Muslim north.
”As Muslims we want to call the attention of Obasanjo, to let him know that peace and the rule of law have conditions.
”We are ready to live in peace and be law-abiding, but if our lives and honour are violated we are ready to law down our lives to protect them,” he warned.
He also called on his supporters not to take out their frustrations on the innocent, but shortly after the rally mobs of young men began attacking Christian-run businesses, setting at least five stores and a truck on fire. There were no immediate reports of casualties.
The Hausa community in Yelwa, whose leaders say that more than 600 people were killed in last week’s attack, has accused federal security forces of failing to protect it from heavily armed attackers. Many suspect the security forces are part of a plot to drive Muslims from the religiously mixed state.
But both Dariye and Obasanjo’s governments have firmly denied that there is any collusion between police and the attackers, and 600 additional officers have been deployed to the Shendam area to prevent more bloodletting.
Meanwhile, the US-based international pressure group Human Rights Watch condemned Obasanjo’s government for failing to prevent the massacre or deal with the underlying problems in the Shendam local government area.
”The government’s neglect of the situation in Plateau over the last three years has resulted in an endless cycle of revenge,” the group’s Africa director, Peter Takirambudde, said in a statement.
”Not only have the police been unwilling or unable to stop the fighting, but the government has not taken responsibility for finding a lasting solution to the crisis,” he said. — Sapa-AFP