Residents flee homes after Islamists attack in Nigeria, 17 killed
Sunday, 8 January 2012
KANO, (Nigeria), Jan 7 (agencies) Hundreds of residents fled their homes Saturday in a town in northeastern Nigeria in the wake of all-night gun battles between Islamists and security forces, police and residents said.
Dozens of armed Islamists stormed Potiskum on Friday and launched gun and bomb attacks on the police headquarters. The scale of damage was not immediately clear as soldiers cordoned off the area.
The attackers fired shots and threw a bomb into a nearby police barracks but no one was hurt, said residents in the barracks.
Two banks in the town were also robbed and burnt by the Islamists, residents said.
Residents of neighbourhoods around the police headquarters have vacated their homes in fear of military raids in the area in the aftermath of the attack, residents said.
Meanwhile: Nigeria has been hit by a fresh wave of violence apparently targeting the country's Christian communities.
At least 17 people were killed in Mubi in Adamawa state as gunmen opened fire in a town hall where members of the Christian Igbo group were meeting. There were also reports of a deadly attack in Adamawa's capital, Yola.
The Islamist Boko Haram group said it had carried out the attack in Mubi and another in Gombe on Thursday night in which at least six people died.
The group has staged numerous attacks in northern and central areas in recent months - on Christmas Day it attacked a church near the capital, Abuja, killing dozens of people.
One Boko Haram faction has warned all southerners - who are mostly Christian and animist - to leave the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria. Adamawa state borders Borno state, where Boko Haram emerged.
Last week President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Yobe and Borno states, as well as Plateau state in central Nigeria and Niger state in the west, following a surge in ethnic and sectarian violence.
Dozens of armed Islamists stormed Potiskum on Friday and launched gun and bomb attacks on the police headquarters. The scale of damage was not immediately clear as soldiers cordoned off the area.
The attackers fired shots and threw a bomb into a nearby police barracks but no one was hurt, said residents in the barracks.
Two banks in the town were also robbed and burnt by the Islamists, residents said.
Residents of neighbourhoods around the police headquarters have vacated their homes in fear of military raids in the area in the aftermath of the attack, residents said.
Meanwhile: Nigeria has been hit by a fresh wave of violence apparently targeting the country's Christian communities.
At least 17 people were killed in Mubi in Adamawa state as gunmen opened fire in a town hall where members of the Christian Igbo group were meeting. There were also reports of a deadly attack in Adamawa's capital, Yola.
The Islamist Boko Haram group said it had carried out the attack in Mubi and another in Gombe on Thursday night in which at least six people died.
The group has staged numerous attacks in northern and central areas in recent months - on Christmas Day it attacked a church near the capital, Abuja, killing dozens of people.
One Boko Haram faction has warned all southerners - who are mostly Christian and animist - to leave the mainly Muslim north of Nigeria. Adamawa state borders Borno state, where Boko Haram emerged.
Last week President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Yobe and Borno states, as well as Plateau state in central Nigeria and Niger state in the west, following a surge in ethnic and sectarian violence.