Thousands flee after clashes between Nigerian security forces and militants

Thousands flee after clashes between Nigerian security forces and militants

2011-12-29 21:04:33 GMT+7 (ICT)

DAMATURU, NIGERIA (BNO NEWS) -- Heavy clashes between militant Islamists and Nigerian security forces have displaced tens of thousands of people in Damaturu city, an official said on Thursday.

Heavy gun battles between the Boko Haram Islamist militant group and troops in the northeastern city last week have left 90,000 people displaced. Ibrahim Farinloye, northeast coordinator for Nigeria's National Emergency Management Agency (Nema), said an entire district in Damaturu has been emptied because of the fighting last Thursday and Friday.

"When there is insecurity, everybody runs for their lives. That area [Pompomari] is deserted," he told the BBC. Farinloye added that many people have also fled their homes in the Jerusalem district, but that they refuse to move into camps for displaced people because they fear they would be easy targets for attackers.

Heavy violence broke out in Damaturu last week, leaving dozens of people killed. Several people were killed as a result of several bomb blasts on Christmas Day in Damaturu, part of a coordinated attack on Nigerian Christians which left 40 people killed and more than 50 injured. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the attacks.

On Tuesday, Nigeria's main Muslim cleric, the Sultan of Sokoto, denounced the violence on Christmas Day following a meeting with President Goodluck Jonathan. "I want to assure all Nigerians that there is no conflict between Muslims and Christians, between Islam and Christianity," Muhammad Sa'ad Abubakar told journalists afterwards.

He added: "It's a conflict between evil people and good people. The good people are more than the evil ones, so the good people must come together to defeat the evil ones, and that is the message."

The Boko Haram group has been blamed for most of the region's terrorist attacks and seeks the imposition of an extremist stance of the Shariah law, which is a Muslim code of conduct. The group's name, in the local language of Hausa, roughly translates as 'Western religion is sacrilegious' or 'non-Islamic religion is a sin.'

In early November, a series of bomb and shooting attacks targeting police stations, mosques and churches in northeastern Nigeria left at least 82 people killed and more than 100 injured. The attacks, also claimed by Boko Haram, happened just before the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

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