Some of the militants under arrest:
An update on the latest situation in Bauchi:
*The violence centers around an Islamic group called Boko Haram in north eastern Nigeria.
*Boko Haram means “Western education is forbidden” in the Hausa language. The group is led by a cleric named Mohammed Yusuf.
*The group was founded in 2002 in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state. Many of its members are from the neighbouring republic of Chad.
*Violence flared when the group attacked a police station and other security bases. The Nigerian army and mobile police reinforcements have been called in to battle the militants who are hundreds strong and are armed with machine guns, grenades and other explosives. Hundreds of people have been killed in the clashes.
*A pertinent question is how the Nigerian intelligence services failed to detect the activities of such a heavily armed and subversive group.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3z2I_Px5Klg
News reports on the violence:
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2009/07/200972913529620235.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-nigeria29-2009jul29,0,7741454.story
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8169966.stm
Reports say that around 200 people have been killed in Yobe state in northern Nigeria. The latest clashes were apparently sparked by clashes between Islamic militants and the police.
