Category: Nigeria

In Nigeria, Sectarian Killings Spark Protests for Right to Bear Arms

The years-long clamor by Nigerian citizens for the right to bear arms has begun to sound like a roar. “If the Government cannot protect us, we will use any means to protect ourselves,” said the Reverend Polycarp Lubo in Yelwan Zangam on Aug. 28 at a mass funeral for victims of terrorist attacks by gunmen….


Gunmen Abduct 73 Children From School in Northwest Nigeria

Armed men kidnapped 73 children from a school in the northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara in the latest mass abduction in the region, police said in a statement on Wednesday. Police said a large number of armed bandits invaded the Government Day Secondary School in the village of Kaya in rural Zamfara state at 11:22…


Protest of Sectarian Violence in Jos, Nigeria: Corpses Hauled to Governor’s Front Door

JOS, Nigeria—Anguished citizens of terrorized Plateau State, Nigeria, forced lawmakers to see their pain up close and personal Aug. 25 by hauling the corpses of victims to their front door. They marched by the thousands to the Government House in Jos, the cosmopolitan capital of Nigeria’s northern states, beside biers of flatbed trucks carrying the…


Gunmen Attack Nigeria’s Defense Academy

KADUNA, Nigeria–The Nigerian military are hunting for unknown gunmen who attacked its premier defense academy early Aug. 24, killing two, wounding one, and abducting another. Security analysts described it as a “humiliating attack” on the Afaka Barracks of the Nigeria Defense Academy (NDA), Igabi Local Government Area (LGA) of  Kaduna State, Central Nigeria.  Two mid-cadre officers,…


Nigeria Pounded by Spread of Sectarian Killings

Christian residents of Nigeria’s Plateau State are ducking for cover as reprisal killings mount both in the state capital of Jos and in the rural conflict zones of Bassa County, 12 miles west of the city. The violence against Christian residents has stepped up after a massacre of 22 Fulani Muslims by a Christian mob…


Nigeria Battered by Spread of Sectarian Killings

Christian residents of Nigeria’s Plateau state are ducking for cover as reprisal killings mount both in the state capital of Jos and in the rural conflict zones of Bassa County, 12 miles west of the city. The violence against Christian residents has grown since a massacre of 22 Fulani Muslims by a Christian mob on…


Nigeria Expects to Lift Twitter Ban by End of Year, Minister Says

LONDON/LAGOS—Nigeria expects to lift its ban on Twitter before the end of the year, Information Minister Lai Mohammed told Reuters on Thursday, adding that the government was awaiting a response on three final requests made of the social media platform. The ban, announced in June, has hurt Nigerian businesses and drawn widespread condemnation for its…


In Nigeria’s Jos City, Reprisal Attacks Threaten to Become Sectarian War

Nigerian authorities are scrambling to avert a full-fledged sectarian war in Plateau State after mob violence claimed the lives of 31 on Aug. 14 and 15. On the morning of Aug. 14 five minibuses conveying more than 60 Muslim worshippers were attacked by a Christian mob and bludgeoned, killing 22, on the outskirts of Jos,…


Boko Haram Terrorists Surrender by the Hundreds to Nigerian Army

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria—In a video, Boko Haram fighters and their families march in single file out of the tall grass of Nigeria’s Sambisa Forest, Off camera, members of the Nigerian Army greet then, in one of several mass surrenders taking place in three countries. The video of several hundred women and children and a few men…


Sectarian Violence in Nigeria Takes a New Turn, as Christians Storm Muslim Town

Gunmen of a Christian tribe attacked an all-Muslim Nigerian town early Aug. 7, leaving 9 persons dead, several houses burned, and town leaders fuming at authorities. The attack marked a new development in the ongoing strife in Nigeria, with Christians going on the offensive against Muslims. For months, the tribe of the Atyap people in…