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Nigeria: Jonathan declares state of emergency in areas affected by Boko Haram violence
National Security Adviser General Owoye Andrew Azazi told Reuters the security services were considering making contact with moderate members of Boko Haram via “back channels”, even though explicit talks are officially ruled out.
In Jos, which was also bombed at Christmas, two dozen armoured personnel carriers were patrolling the streets ahead of New Year celebrations.
The commissioner of police for Plateau state, Dipo Ayeni, told Reuters: “We have deployed this tactic of a show of force so that we can celebrate the New Year without any hindrance, and so there should be no cause for panic.”
“The events that caused Nigeria’s civil war are repeating themselves,” said Uche Udemezue, an Igbo woman in the southeast, referring to the secessionist war of her people against northern rulers in which more than a million people were killed in the late 1960s.
“The north should know nobody has a monopoly on violence.”
Attacks in and around the capital – including one on the U.N. headquarters in August that killed at least 24 people – suggest Boko Haram is trying to raise its jihadist profile.
In a separate, unrelated incident, clashes between rival ethnic groups in southeastern Nigeria’s Ebonyi state on Saturday killed at least 50 people, the state government spokesman said, and police said mobile units had been sent to the state to quell the violence.
There was no suggestion they had anything to do with wider security problems, but the clashes are likely to add to Jonathan’s woes at a time when his forces are already stretched.
