2009 Nigeria Religious Violence
Religious violence resulted in at least 150 deaths in two days after a series of attacks on 26 July 2009 in several Nigerian cities. Bauchi in Bauchi State, Maiduguri in Borno State, Potiskum in Yobe State and Wudil have all been attacked. Witnesses now claim over 250 people are dead. Nigeria claims that most of the dead are militants.
The battles began on 26 July when Boko Haram, a militant Islamist organisation, attacked a police station in retaliation for the arrest of its leaders. Police responded with their own retaliation and a curfew fell on the area. The attacks spread and by the next day corpses were located at police stations, people were fleeing their homes and some were being pulled from their cars to be shot dead as police stations burned to the ground.
Nigerian troops then surrounded the home of Mohammed Yusuf in Maiduguri on 28 July after his followers barricaded themselves inside.
It is the worst sectarian violence the country has experienced since November 2008. It has been suggested that politics, not religion, is the cause of the violence.
Read more about this topic: Law Enforcement In Nigeria
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