http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/30/world/africa/nigeria-sectarian-divisions/index.html?hpt=hp_t3
Nigerian violence threatens to ignite wider Muslim-Christian conflict - CNN.com
By Tim Lister , CNN
2011-12-31T02:18:46Z
CNN.com
(CNN) -- There are ominous signs in Nigeria that the campaign of violence by
the militant Islamist group Boko Haram is leading to wider and more explosive
sectarian tensions -- in a country where Christian-Muslim relations are often
tense and sometimes bloody.
The last two months have seen widespread bloodshed in northern Nigeria, with
churches and police stations among the targets.
Boko Haram (which according to the group means "Western civilization is
forbidden") has claimed responsibility for a series of attacks on churches in
central and northern Nigeria on Christmas Day, including one near the capital,
Abuja, which killed nearly 30 people.
Two days later, a bomb attack at an Islamic school -- or madrassa -- in the
southern Delta state injured several children. It's not clear whether it was
intended as revenge, but such sectarian attacks are rare in Delta state.
Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan called a meeting of military and police
chiefs on Thursday to review the deteriorating situation. National police chief
Hafiz Ringim was quoted by local media afterward as saying, "We are all
scrambling to find our feet and face [the threat] squarely."
Boko Haram demands the imposition of Islamic Sharia law across Nigeria, and has
recently extended its attacks beyond the deserts of northern Nigeria.
One of the Christmas bombings took place in Jos, long a fault line in Nigeria's
sectarian divide.
Christian leaders have demanded a stronger response to the attacks from the
government and the Muslim community. Ayo Oritsejafor, head of the Christian
Association of Nigeria, complained Wednesday that the response of Islamic
leaders had been "unacceptable and an abdication of their responsibilities."
"The Christian community is fast losing confidence in government's ability to
protect our rights," Oritsejafor said.
David Cook of Rice University, who has studied the rise of Boko Haram, says
that "if radical Muslim violence on a systematic level were to take hold in
Nigeria...it could eventually drive the country into a civil war."
Shehu Sani, a human rights activist based in northern Nigeria, shares that
fear. Sani, who has tried to mediate between Boko Haram and the government
earlier this year, warns that Christian retaliation "would be unimaginable in a
nation racked by deep divisions."
Corruption, poverty and a lack of government services have helped Boko Haram
gain support, especially among young Muslims out of work. So has a perception
that the Muslim north has been marginalized by a political establishment drawn
largely from the Christian south.
Boko Haram dramatically expanded its campaign of terror after its leader,
Mohamed Yusuf, was shot dead while in police detention in July 2009. Just over
a year later, the group attacked a prison, freeing more than 700 prisoners,
including 100 of its own members.
Cook says that since then the group has been responsible for at least 45 major
operations, which have included assassinations -- frequently using gunmen on
motorbikes -- and more recently suicide bombings beyond its northern heartland.
Beyond the security forces and Christian targets, it has assassinated Muslim
clerics who oppose the group -- and even killed a prominent Boko Haram member
who had attended talks to explore a truce. Boko Haram's presence in the city of
Maiduguri has made it almost ungovernable, according to analysts.
Its ability to inflict mass casualties has grown fast. In August, a suicide
bomber struck the U.N. building in Abuja, killing 23 people. In November, some
150 people were killed in a series of bombings and shootings in Damaturu,
capital of Yobe state. In a just-published paper for the James Baker Institute
for Public Policy, David Cook says "Boko Haram went through the Christian
quarter of Damaturu and massacred anybody who did not know the Muslim creed."
More recently, clashes between security forces and Boko Haram in Damaturu have
led some 90,000 people to flee their homes, according to state officials.
The former U.S. ambassador in Nigeria, John Campbell, argues on his blog that
Boko Haram "may be intent on showing Nigerians and the international community
that it can make the country ungovernable for President Goodluck Jonathan's
predominantly southern Christian administration."
But Campbell and others argue that Boko Haram has not yet shown it can operate
in wide swaths of Nigeria's Muslim heartland, nor the commercial capital, Lagos.
The commander of U.S. Africa Command, Gen. Carter Ham, has suggested Boko Haram
may have developed links with other Islamic jihadist groups in the region,
especially al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
But Campbell believes Boko Haram is "financing itself through bank robberies
and is arming itself by thefts from government armories and purchases -- there
is no shortage of weapons on the market."
Less than two months ago, Jonathan described attacks by Boko Haram as a
temporary setback, which would soon be a thing of the past. Now he appears to
see the group as a lethal threat that demands the full attention of the
security services.
But since Yusuf's death, Boko Haram has had no obvious leader or structure and
appears to act as loosely connected cells. And it is feeding on deep-seated
grievances which the government seems unable to address.
David Cook warns that "as more and more territories become ungovernable, such
as Maiduguri, then Muslims more and more will want to join Boko Haram, if only
because it represents the one group that can actually project power and hold
out the illusion of security to the people."
© 2011 Cable News Network. Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
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