MAIDUGURI – More than 700 people have been killed during a five-day uprising by a radical Islamic sect in northern Nigeria and the search for bodies is continuing, according to Red Cross and defence officials.
The latest estimate of deaths is more than twice those quoted before the weekend.
Gun battles raged for days last week as the security forces fought to put down the uprising by members of Boko Haram, a militant movement which wants sharia (Islamic law) to be imposed more widely in Africa’s most populous nation.
Violence flared in several states, but Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state where sect leader Mohammed Yusuf had his base, saw the heaviest fighting.
“From our findings, the toll is 780 so far . . . A joint operation team has been tasked to search for remaining dead bodies all over the town,” Aliiyu Maikano, local disaster management officer for the Red Cross, said yesterday.
State government and health ministry workers have been piling corpses, some swollen after lying in the streets for days, on to open trucks.
The troubles began last Sunday in Bauchi state, some 400km (250 miles) southwest of Maiduguri, when members of the group were arrested on suspicion of plotting to attack a police station.
Boko Haram followers, armed with machetes, knives, home-made hunting rifles and petrol bombs, then went on the rampage in several cities. – (Reuters)