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| Violence in Nigeria |
A 74-year old Igbo market woman, Mrs Bridget Agbahime, was on Thursday beheaded at Kofar Wambai Market, Kano, by an irate mob, who accused her of blaspheming Prophet Mohammed.
The incident occurred at about 4.30pm when traders were about to close for the day’s business.
While condemning such an act, the Northern Christian Association of Nigeria described it as barbaric and wondered why such gruesome and barbaric incident always featured in Kano, a foremost commercial city in the country.
However, Kano, is not the only city or state in the country where people have been killed in the name of religion.
Here are ten gruesome religious killings witnessed in the country since January 2000:
2000 Kaduna riots (21 February-23 May 2000)
The riot followed a proposal to adopt the Sharia law in the state. The proposal led to a violent clash between Christians and Muslims in Kaduna State. It is unclear how many people were killed. It is estimated that between 1,000 to 5,000 people died.
2001 Jos riots (7–17 September 2001)
These riots involved Christians and Muslims who clashed violently in Jos, over the appointment of a Muslim politician, Alhaji Muktar Mohammed, as local coordinator of the federal poverty alleviation program. The clashes started on September 7 and lasted nearly two weeks, ending on 17 September.
More than 1,000 people were killed during the riots.
Miss World riots in Kaduna (November 22, 2002)
The Miss World riots were a series of religiously-motivated riots in Kaduna in November 2002, claiming the lives of more than 200 people.
The controversial Miss World beauty pageant, which was meant to be held in Kaduna, was relocated to London after bloody clashes between Muslims and Christians, caused by what some Muslims deemed to be a “blasphemous” article in a Christian newspaper about the event.
The Miss World riots were part of the Sharia Conflict, that started in 1999 when several predominantly Islamic states in Northern Nigeria decided to introduce Sharia law.
Yelwa massacre, Yelwa, Shedam and Kano ( February 2, 2004)
The so-called Yelwa massacre was actually a series of related incidents of mass violence between Muslims and Christians which took place in Yelwa, Kano State between February and May 2004, killing over 700 people.
The first incident in the series occurred on February 4, 2004 when armed Muslims attacked the Christians of Yelwa, killing more than 78 of them including at least 48 who were worshiping inside a church compound. According to some sources, the signal for the attack was a call for Jihad from the local mosque.
On May 2, 2004 local Christians responded to the February incident by attacking Muslims in Yelwa, resulting in roughly 630 deaths. According to some sources, Muslim girls were forced to eat pork and other foods forbidden to Muslims and some were even raped.
Muhammad cartoons controversy in Maiduguri (February 18,2006)
The killings began after the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten published 12 editorial cartoons on September 30, 2005, most of which depicted Muhammad. The newspaper announced that this was an attempt to contribute to the debate about criticism of Islam and self-censorship.
Muslim groups in Denmark complained, and the issue eventually led to protests around the world, including violent demonstrations and riots in some Muslim countries.
The international crisis reached the Nigerian city of Maiduguri, in which over 50 people were killed and many buildings destroyed or damaged by rioting Muslims.
2008 Jos riots (November 28-29)
The 2008 Jos riots involved Christians and Muslims over the result of a local election on November 29 and 29, 2008 in Jos. Two days of rioting left hundreds injured and at least 761 dead. The Nigerian army was deployed and by November 30 order was restored.
2009 Boko Haram uprising
The 2009 Boko Haram uprising was a conflict between Boko Haram, a militant Islamist group and Nigerian security forces. Violence across several states in northeastern Nigeria left over 1,000 dead, with around 700 killed in the city of Maiduguri alone, according to one military official.
A government inquiry later found that, while long-standing tensions existed between Boko Haram and the Nigerian Security forces, the immediate cause of the violence stemmed from an incident in which a group of the sect’s members were stopped by police in the city of Maiduguri as they were on the way to the cemetery to bury a comrade.
The officers, part of a special operation aimed at stamping out violence and rampant crime in Borno State, demanded that the young men comply with a law requiring motorcycle passengers to wear helmets. They refused and, in the confrontation that followed, several people were shot and wounded by police.
According to initial media reports the violence began on July 26 when Boko Haram launched an attack on a police station in Bauchi state, with clashes between militants and the Nigeria Police Force spreading to Kano, Yobe and Borno soon after.
2010 Jos riots
The 2010 Jos riots were clashes between Muslim and Christian ethnic groups near the city of Jos. Since 2001, the area has been plagued by violence motivated by multiple factors.The clashes have been characterised as “religious violence” by many news sources, although others cite ethnic and economic differences as the root of the violence.
The first spate of violence of 2010 started on 17 January in Jos and spread to surrounding communities. Houses, churches, mosques and vehicles were set ablaze, during at least four days of fighting. At least 326 people, and possibly more than a thousand, were killed.
Hundreds of people died in fresh clashes in March 2010. According to The New York Times, the slaughtered villagers were mostly Christians, slain by machete attacks from groups of Hausa-Fulani Muslim herdsmen.Hundreds more fled the area in case the perpetrators returned.
December 2011 Nigeria attacks
A series of attacks occurred on Christmas Day church services in northern Nigeria on 25 December 2011. There were bomb blasts and shootings at churches in Madalla, Jos, Gadaka, and Damaturu. A total of 41 people were reported dead.
The Muslim sect, Boko Haram claimed responsibility.
Yobe Federal Government College attack (February 25, 2014)
On February 25, 2014, fifty-nine boys were killed at the Federal Government College of Buni Yadi in Yobe State. The twenty-four buildings of the school were also burned down as a result of the attack. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but according to media and local officials, the Islamist militants, Boko Haram, are suspected to be behind the attack----daylight.ng
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