10 Dead, Churches Attacked as Nigerian Leader Visits Kano
President Goodluck Jonathan visited Nigeria's second largest city of Kano on Sunday after at least 166 people were killed in one of the deadliest waves of attacks in the mainly Muslim north.
Jonathan, facing the biggest crisis of his rule, arrived in the city two days after the coordinated bombings and gunbattles rocked Kano in attacks claimed by the Islamist militant group Boko Haram.
"A terrorist attack on one person is an attack on all of us," Jonathan said as he inspected sites targeted in the violence, and met the city's top Muslim traditional leader emir Ado Bayero, pledging to boost security.
The sectarian violence gripping Nigeria has raised fears of an all-out civil war in Africa's most populous nation and its biggest oil producer.
Jonathan's brief visit came after violence erupted in the north again on Sunday, with 10 people killed in pre-dawn attacks in the town of Tafawa Balewa, a flashpoint of sectarian violence in the neighboring state of Bauchi.
Bombs were also thrown early Sunday at two churches in the state capital Bauchi city, but no casualties were reported, police said.
Soldiers were manning checkpoints in Kano, but a round-the-clock curfew imposed after the violence following Friday prayers was relaxed to a night-time curfew Sunday, although streets remained largely deserted.
Jonathan imposed emergency rule in parts of Nigeria's north on December 31 after a wave of violence blamed on Boko Haram, including attacks on churches on Christmas Day, but Kano was not included in the areas covered.
Dozens of people were still thronging morgues and searching through stacks of dead bodies in Kano on Sunday looking for their loved ones, while hospitals have been struggling to cope with the dead and wounded.
Relief workers who have been picking up the bodies from the streets said that the overall death toll was at least 166, but the authorities have not given a precise toll, saying only that the number of dead would be over 100.
"As of yesterday, the overall death toll was 166," said one relief agency source, adding that more than 50 people were wounded.
However, a doctor at a major hospital said the toll could be much higher.
"If truth be told, the overall death toll from the attacks is around 250," said the doctor, adding that relief workers were still collecting bodies.
"Although the bulk of the bodies were brought here, others were deposited at three other hospitals," said the doctor, who declined to be named.
A purported spokesman for Boko Haram claimed responsibility for the violence, saying it was in response to a refusal by the authorities to release its members from custody.
Around 20 explosions reverberated across the city on Friday in attacks that targeted a police headquarters and other police stations, a secret police building and immigration offices.
Gunfire also erupted in several areas of the city, which had escaped the worst of the violence blamed on the Islamist group in recent months. A local television journalist covering the unrest was among those shot dead.
The attacks sent residents fleeing in fear or kept many indoors.
"How can I go out while such a huge number of the people have been killed? I have to respect the dead," said food trader Shehu Lawan.
In Sunday's unrest, 10 people, including a policemen and soldier were killed in Tafawa Balewa, in Bauchi state.
Bukata Zhyadi, a traditional ruler of the mainly Christian Sayawa ethnic group, told Agence France Presse that attackers hurled home-made hand grenades into houses while people were sleeping and shot at those trying to escape.
He blamed the violence on the Muslim Hausa-Fulani ethnic group.
Police however said the violence erupted after gunmen robbed a bank.
"In the exchange of fire that ensued, a policeman, a soldier and eight unidentified civilians were killed by stray bullets," police spokesman Mohammed Barau told AFP, adding that six suspects had been arrested.
Bombs were also thrown at a Catholic church and an evangelical church in Bauchi city, but caused minimal damage and no deaths or injuries, police said.
Residents also said a bomb-laden car was found abandoned outside a government-run fuel station in Kano but that the explosives were defused by police.
Most of the recent major attacks have occurred in the northeast of the country, with many taking place despite the state of emergency.
Friday's strikes would be among the group's most audacious and well-coordinated assaults by Boko Haram.
The group claimed responsibility for the Christmas Day bombing of worshippers outside a Catholic church near the capital Abuja, which killed at least 44 people. It also claimed the August suicide bombing of U.N. headquarters in Abuja that killed 25 people.
Attacks specifically targeting Christians have given rise to fears of a wider religious conflict in the country, which is roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominantly Christian south.
But attacks blamed on Boko Haram have included a wide range of targets, including Muslims.
Source: Agence France Presse
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