AFRICA : NIGERIA : CHURCHES BOMBED BY BOKO HARAM

CISA NEWS REPORT:
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KADUNA, June 19, 2012 (CISA) – Radical Islamist group Boko Haram has claimed Sunday’s suicide bombings of three churches in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna.
The blasts were in revenge for what it said were previous Christian “atrocities” against Muslims, the group said in an email sent to the local media. At least 50 people were killed in the bombings and reprisal killings, the Red Cross says.
According to the Red Cross, another 131 people were injured by the violence – the third weekend in a row in which Boko Haram has carried out bombings on churches. The group has carried out a series of deadly attacks in the past two years. Two of Sunday’s blasts happened in the Wusasa and Sabon-Gari districts of the town of Zaria and a third hit the nearby city of Kaduna, the state capital.
Rioting broke out in different parts of Kaduna state as youth took to the streets in anger and attacked Muslims.
Kaduna lies on the dividing line between Nigeria’s largely Christian south and mainly Muslim north. It is one of the areas where conflict between rival religious and ethnic groups has claimed many hundreds of lives.
Kaduna state governor Patrick Yakowa said the weekend’s attacks were “sad and disheartening” and a blow to government efforts to promote peace and reconciliation between Christians and Muslims.
In an emailed statement in the local Hausa language, Boko Haram spokesman Abul-Qaqa said: “Allah has given us victory in the attacks we launched today against churches in Kaduna and Zaria towns which resulted in the deaths of many Christians and security personnel.”
The group justified the weekend attacks on churches by saying they were carried out in revenge for what it described as government-backed killings of Muslims in central Nigeria during earlier bouts of violence.
Christians were warned to “either embrace Islam or… never have peace of mind,” the statement said. A 24-hour curfew has now been relaxed to allow people to move about in the hours of daylight.
“The situation is calm. The police have limited the curfew, which now ranges from 6 pm to 6 am. The population has been able to resume its activities in the hours when the curfew is not in force” said Rt Rev Matthew Man-oso Ndagoso Archbishop of Kaduna.
Boko Haram – which means “Western education is forbidden” – wants to impose strict Muslim law across Nigeria.
Since 2009, it has targeted police stations and other government buildings, churches and schools. Hundreds of people have died in the attacks, and analysts suggest the group is trying to trigger clashes between Christians and Muslims.
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