Riots 'kill hundreds in Nigeria'

[Infinite Chaos]

Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed in central Nigeria after Christians and Muslims clashed over the result of a local election.

A Muslim charity in the town of Jos says it collected more than 300 bodies, and fatalities are also expected among Christians.

There is no official confirmation yet, and figures are notoriously unreliable in Nigeria, says the BBC's Alex Last.

Police have imposed a 24-hour curfew and the army is patrolling the streets.

They have been given orders to shoot on sight in an effort to quell hostilities that mark the worst clashes in the restive West African nation since 2004.

For the second straight day on Saturday, angry mobs went through the town burning homes, churches and mosques. Rest of story: BBC

I have to say I'm shocked and worried - I lived in Jos for 3 years and I have friends there. I haven't been able to raise them on the phone today - I don't think they were involved, it's probably the local phone network struggling under the strain rather than something directly happening to them.

 

[new coup for you]

damn seems like the whole world is exploding in factional tension

 

[RightinNYC]

damn seems like the whole world is exploding in factional tension

Here in the civilized world, we don't fight over things like religion. We reserve our rage for battles over who gets the last 4 gallon tub of mayo at walmart.

 

[Infinite Chaos]

There have been problems in Plateau State before - what is worrying is that Plateau State is supposedly a moderate state where Muslims and Christians have lived peacefully together but it just doesn't work.

The friend I have spoke about had an incident some years ago where he was walking through a muslim area and a kid ran up and spat on his shirt. All around were muslim men, but he grabbed the kid and wiped the spit off onto the boy's face - how he got out of there to tell me the story I don't know.

He's the kind not to back down against superior numbers - a kindred spirit - I'm the same sometimes and why we got on so well but I know it will be his death one day.

 

[SquareMelon]

The friend I have spoke about had an incident some years ago where he was walking through a muslim area and a kid ran up and spat on his shirt. All around were muslim men, but he grabbed the kid and wiped the spit off onto the boy's face - how he got out of there to tell me the story I don't know.

He's the kind not to back down against superior numbers - a kindred spirit - I'm the same sometimes and why we got on so well but I know it will be his death one day.

How would people know who is of what religion in that area? Do Christians and Muslims distinguish themselves in the way they dress for the men? How could that kid know that your friend was of different religion.

 

[Infinite Chaos]

How would people know who is of what religion in that area? Do Christians and Muslims distinguish themselves in the way they dress for the men?

Jos as I remember it had areas that were muslim / christian or mixed. It also had areas (GRA = Government Reserve Area) where the white foreigners and aid workers like myself lived among the rich elite and politicians.

The GRA area will always be sealed off first.

As for being able to distinguish - you could easily tell people's religion by their tribal / ethnic facial characteristics. The Muslim Hausa are always dark, thin wiry people with slightly haughty features, the Igbo are lighter skinned, muscular and broader and have flatter facial features. The native Plateau are very dark (deep black skin) and are quite varied in body build. The Tivs who are also around from the south of Plateau / Benue are wiry warrior descendents who tend to be quite dark but also slightly shorter in structure.

Tivs can be either Muslim or Christian but their first loyalty is to other Tivs in any fighting or riots.
Igbos are always Christian
Hausa are always Muslim
Plateau tribesmen can be either Muslim, Christian or Animist but this depends on which part of the Plateau they come from.

How could that kid know that your friend was of different religion.

Muslim boys in Nigeria leave the household home at the age of 10 - they have to find a "Mallam" or Muslim cleric who they will study Islam with for 4-5 years. You would see gangs of them around around or sometimes on the back of trucks traveling from one town to another (Muslim truck drivers will always pick these kids up and take them from city to city) - they are called "al majerai" or "the Many" - and they make good cannon fodder in street battles. Older muslims would send these kids in first in any riot or street battle.

Even I could tell an "al majerai", once you see one you can tell them again.

 

[Infinite Chaos]

Managed to get through to my friend's wife - they have been moved to the University of Jos's staff reserve for safety however I couldn't speak to Obed as he is at the hospital visiting his older brother (who was wounded on Friday afternoon).

Violence apparently started as soon as the election results were called and the muslims immediately started burning churches and homes in the christian areas. The military have cracked down really hard and last night started shooting anyone out breaking the curfew. On Friday night / Saturday morning curfew was imposed by the police and very few took notice (the police are more corrupt and susceptible to religious bias than the army) however large parts of the town have been laid waste and there are bodies laying around in the streets.

The hospital itself borders the Government Reserve Area so will be heavily guarded at the moment.

 

[kaya'08]

It upsets me that Christians and Muslims cannot live together peacefully; a country which holds a co-existent society of both Muslims and Christians who could live together and embrace each others values and respect each others beliefs is ideally my sort of dream country, however such a country is yet to exist. We should befriend each other, not hate each other, theres no need for hate and no room for it in religion.
And it interests me you was an aid worker in Africa Infinite Chaos, that is a beautiful thing to hear.

 

[Infinite Chaos]

It upsets me that Christians and Muslims cannot live together peacefully; a country which holds a co-existent society of both Muslims and Christians who could live together and embrace each others values and respect each others beliefs is ideally my sort of dream country, however such a country is yet to exist. We should befriend each other, not hate each other, theres no need for hate and no room for it in religion.

Nigeria is about 40% Muslim, 40% Christian and 20% Animist - it has a strange recent history including a really brutal civil war in the late 60's.

The recent problems are to do with access to federal funds and this is why the riots occurred - whoever won the election would have their hands on the purse strings for Plateau State and most of the State Senators have been muslim so a loss to Christians was a loss of funds and the local muslims couldn't accept that.

Basically (from the stories and recollection I was told) the problems there are tribal as well as historical more than purely religion - and oil causes real problems too. The money that the federal Govt hands to the states comes from oil revenue - Nigeria after independence was reasonably prosperous but the govt revenues came from the groundnut farming of the Muslim Hausa, they really carried the rest of the country economically. At the same time, the Muslim Hausa had been encouraged by the British into the new Nigerian military and there they would stay - most senior staff in the military since Independence have been Muslim. It is very rare for any other group to get to the top.

Then oil was discovered in the south, if you talk to Nigerians they describe it as a country-wide feeling that they could all just give up working and the oil would guarantee their prosperity. Groundnut farming became unimportant - the hausa tended to give it up wholesale but they continued to join the military and find themselves at the top. You'll also note if you look that Nigeria has had a whole series of military dictatorships since independence and every dictator has been a Northerner Muslim. With power, the dictators had their hands on the oil money so very little of it has really affected the delta peoples where the oil is based. When I was there in 1992 - 95, there were supposedly free democratic elections but I saw corruption everywhere and the eventual winner (a Southern Yoruba Muslim) was not allowed to take power and eventually died in prison.
The Hausa had been known to say no Southerner would ever become President however a previous President (Obasanjo) was the only acceptable candidate and he took power. He was however historically one of the more corrupt front men for Muslim Northerners in the past and it seems he was again.

Add to that the brutal civil war - when the Igbos wanted independence - the Igbos call themselves the "Jews of Africa" and they are really hard working. They run nearly all the businesses and rarely take holiday or rest. The Igbos don't benefit from the oil so any millionaire Igbo you ever meet has made that money through his own blood, sweat and tears. Nigeria won't go down the civil war route again - they all suffered greatly from the war but in reality, the Igbos are shackled by the rest of Nigeria. If they lived anywhere else and had their own country they would be the wealthiest country in Africa - even if they had no minerals to exploit.

I think I rambled...

you was an aid worker in Africa Infinite Chaos, that is a beautiful thing to hear.

I was originally born in Kenya and had since lived in most of Africa (through my parents) Nigeria was one place I never had been and working as an Aid Worker was the best way to do this)

 

[Infinite Chaos]

Long, sharp knives
Teacher Japeth, 25, speaks to the BBC News website from his home in Jos where post-election violence has engulfed the central Nigerian city, leaving hundreds dead, as rival Christian and Muslim mobs attacked each other.

Today people should have been at their working places but still they are not. They are too frightened. We are staying inside. Even the shops are quiet - nowhere is open.

You can't buy anything to eat - all we have now is water to drink. Nothing more

--snip--

I have a telescope and through it I watched what was happening from my home in the Christian quarters, high up on Shaka Hill overlooking Jos.

I could see the burning houses, all the smoke and hear the gunshots. Women were running away carrying their children, clothes, foodstuffs and water. Men were using petrol to douse the grass-roofed houses and then lighting with a match.

Lack of trust

I could hear shouts of "Allahu Akbar".

Some of the Christians came running to safety at our place.

I saw all this on Friday and again on Saturday but on Saturday there was even more shooting and a lot of shouting.

One of my neighbours is a doctor and he could not reach work alone and so they came and picked him up so he could attend to casualties. He told me most of the wounded had had their hands and legs cut off with long sharp knives.

--snip-- Rest of Story: BBC

Grinding poverty, mass unemployment but fabulous wealth if you can tap into the oil revenues the Government offers. What a shame, this is a country with the ability to be a huge powerhouse in the world if it could only learn to put its petrodollars to good use.

EDIT: The report says "Shaka Hills" but there's no such place - it's Shere Hills and is a beautiful part of Jos, you will also find some abandoned mega-structures there for the replacement hospital, hotels and university.

 

[SgtRock]

Six Pastors killed in violence, 500 detained

Qur'an 9:5 "Fight and kill the disbelievers wherever you find them, take them captive, harass them, lie in wait and ambush them using every stratagem of war."

ABUJA, NIGERIA (BosNewsLife)-- Some 500 suspects remained detained Thursday, December 11, for their alleged involvement in rioting sparked by Muslim attacks on Christians, that left at least six pastors dead and some 500 others killed.

Witnesses reported that Muslim militants shot, slashed or stabbed to death most of over 100 Christians killed. Among Christians killed was Joseph Yari of the Evangelical Church of West Africa, several news reports said. Local churches said Yari was shot and killed while helping other Christians who repelled Muslim fanatics bent on burning down his church building.

Several other Christians were also shot, witnesses said.

Muslims comprise roughly half of the Nigeria's population, while Christians of various denominations account for about 40 percent, according to estimates. Christians officials fear more violence, despite announcement by authorities they will attempt to halt the attacks and prosecute those responsible.

"The apparently pre-planned anti-Christian violence" is not a single incident, but "part of a pattern of repeated rioting in Nigeria, usually started by Muslims against Christians," explained the International Director of Barnabas Fund, an international advocacy group supporting Christians in mainly Muslim areas.

However he has said that local Christians were to blame as well, with reports that hundreds of Muslims also died. "It is tragic when Christians respond with violence, as seems to have happened this time."

BosNewsLife - Christian News Agency Blog Archive Nigeria Authorities Detain 500 After Violence Kills Pastors

It is truley sad when Christains do not turn the other cheek. But I can understand how it must be difficult to do so when you witness your loved ones and friends hacked to death with machete's.

 

[Oftencold]

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