11 CHRISTIANS KILLED IN KANO AS CHRISTIAN/MUSLIM VIOLENCE SPIRALS IN PLATEAU

NIGERIA

13 May 2004

Some 11 Christians were killed in Kano on Tuesday 11 May in retaliation for the recent massacre of at least 67 Muslims by Christians in Plateau State where Christian/Muslim violence is spiralling out of control.

KANO

Thousands of angry Muslim demonstrators led by imams rampaged through the streets of Kano (the heartland of conservative Islam in Nigeria) on Tuesday 11 May attacking local Christians. Rioters blocked roads and dragged Christians out of their vehicles, killing at least 11. Homes, cars, Christian-owned businesses and churches were burnt. Schools and businesses closed and thousands of Christians fled to a police academy seeking safety.

Muslims across Nigeria have been enraged by an appalling massacre of at least 67 (possibly as many as 630) Muslims by Christian fighters in Yelwa, Plateau State, on the weekend of 1 – 2 May which took place as part of ongoing violence between Muslims and Christians in the state. In a barely veiled threat Umar Ibrahim Kabo, head of Kano’s Council of Ulammah, addressed the crowds of Muslim demonstrators in Kano calling for President Olusegun Obasanjo to apprehend those responsible within a week or accept “blame for whatever happens”.

Local Christians in Kano have now paid the price for Muslim anger aroused by events which took place hundreds of miles away and with which they had nothing to do. Speaking to Barnabas Fund staff by telephone from Nigeria Archbishop Josiah Fearon expressed his deep concern for the Christians of Kano. He said, “I fear that Christians in other areas across North and Middle-Belt Nigeria could also face similar attacks from Muslim communities incensed and angered by events in Yelwa.”

PLATEAU

At least 269 people have been killed in brutal violence between Muslim Hasua/Fulani and Christian Tarok fighters in Plateau State since February. The latest round of violence was sparked by a clash between Muslims and Christians in the village of Mavo in Wase District in mid-February, in which some 10 people were killed. Several days later on 19 February four police officers were killed in Tunga village, Langtang North District, by Islamic militants seeking revenge.

The town of Yelwa in Shendam District first saw violence on 24 February when Fulani Muslim fighters struck again, massacring some 48 Christians who fled to a church in a vain attempt to find refuge. Some reports suggest as many as 50 more may also have been killed, and over 100 Christians fled the town. Two days later Christians turned on their Muslim neighbours in the nearby town of Gerkawa, Mikang Local Government Area, killing 40 – 50 in retaliation for the massacre in Yelwa. Army units evacuated some 3000 Muslims from Gerkawa, relocating them to Yelwa and further strengthening the Muslim dominance of the town.

Tensions remained high in the region throughout March and April and exploded again into major violence in several villages in the border region of Plateau and Taraba States in late April when an estimated 100 people were tragically killed. The latest attack which has enraged Muslims across the country occurred in the aftermath of this violence, as on the weekend of 1 – 2 May Christian fighters attempted to retake Yelwa. (The town is now widely reported in the international media as a “mainly Muslim town” with no reference to the fact that this is only as a result of the massacre and driving out of Christians in February.) The deaths of 67 people have been confirmed in this latest bloody clash, with some estimating the total death toll at 200, 350 or even 630 people tragically slain.

In addition to those killed, hundreds have been injured and at least 7,500 have been internally displaced because of the violence over the past three months. Thousands of homes and several churches and mosques have been burnt to the ground. Some reports indicate women and children have been kidnapped. Other minor clashes have also taken place.

BACKGROUND

Since September 2001 tensions in Plateau State between indigenous Christian/animist farming communities and ethnic Hausa/Fulani Muslim immigrants (mainly pastoralists) from North Nigeria have broken out into open violence. Over 6,500 people have been killed in clashes between the two communities, in which many Christian youths have been aggressors as well as defenders. Whilst the violence is predominantly economic and ethnic in nature there is also an important religious dimension with churches and mosques attacked and each group seeing the other as “Christians” or “Muslims”, synonymous with their ethnic identity. There is also clear evidence that many Muslim militants involved see the conflict in more overtly religious terms as a struggle to drive out Christians and Islamise large parts of the mainly-Christian Plateau State. Islamic militants from the neighbouring countries of Chad and Niger have been involved in some of the clashes.

PRAY

* Pray for physical and psychological healing for all those who have been injured and emotionally scarred by the violence in both Kano and Plateau. Pray for those who have lost loved ones.

* Pray that Christian fighters in Plateau will repent utterly of their violent actions and reject completely the path of violence, instead relying on the proper authorities to protect them and enforce law and order.

* Pray that no further attacks will take place and that the anger of the Muslim community will be assuaged. Pray that all of the events in Plateau will be swiftly and properly investigated and all of those responsible from either community will be brought to justice.

* Pray for an end to the killing and for real peace in Plateau, a peace which goes further than just a lack of conflict and becomes a deep and lasting reconciliation.

* Pray for politicians, civil servants, police officer, soldiers and local authorities in Plateau, that they will act with objectivity, sensitivity and justice in seeking to resolve the conflict.

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