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Nigeria: Dozens killed in clashes between government and Muslim sect
While initially targeting enemies via hit-and-run assassinations from the back of motorbikes, violence by Boko Haram now has a new sophistication and apparent planning that includes high-profile attacks with greater casualties. The sect is responsible for at least 465 killings in Nigeria this year alone, according to an AP count.
Boko Haram has splintered into three factions, with one wing increasingly willing to kill as it maintains contact with terror groups in North Africa and Somalia, diplomats and security sources say. That, as well as its increasingly violent attacks, have some worried the group will carry out further attacks around Christmas and New Year’s.
Last year, a series of Christmas Eve bombings in the central Nigerian city of Jos claimed by Boko Haram killed at least 32 people and wounded at least 74 others.
With those attacks in mind, the U.S. Embassy in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja issued a warning Friday to citizens to be “particularly vigilant” around churches, large crowds and areas where foreigners congregate.
Analysts say the government’s response remains strained as President Goodluck Jonathan, a Christian from the country’s south, remains worried about alienating the country’s predominantly Muslim north with heavy-handed tactics. In 2009, a military and police crackdown following rioting by Boko Haram members in and around Maiduguri left 700 people dead.
Yet since Thursday, authorities have been using paramilitary police and soldiers more freely. Tanko, the Yobe state police commissioner, said joint patrols by the military and police would continue.
“When you are fighting people you don’t know, you cannot say that’s the end of the exercise,” Tanko said. “We are trying to ensure that will be the end, but we are monitoring what is going on. But we know we cannot specifically say that will be the end.”
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
