June 22, 2012: At least 101 people were killed over the last three days in sectarian
clashes triggered by Sunday’s attack on churches in Nigeria. Gun battles raged between
soldiers and insurgents in two Nigerian cities of Damaturu and Kaduna after suicide
bombers attacked three churches on Sunday.
The post-suicide attack left more
than 61 dead and several injured. Over 40 people, including six security personnel,
were killed Thursday in a gun battle between soldiers and insurgents in Damaturu town,
the capital of Nigeria's Yobe state.
State Police spokesman Patrick Egbuniwe
said that 34 of those killed were members of the Boko Haram. However, another source
claimed that at the Sani Abatcha Hospital Damaturu, the bodies of eight policemen
and three soldiers were brought in.
The governments of the two states of Yobe
and Kaduna have declared 24 hours curfew to quell the deadly confrontation. Civilians
faced acute scarcity of food and water after being trapped indoors.
Meanwhile,
the country's top security chiefs, including the chief of Defence Staff Air Marshal
Oluseyi Peturin, have headed to the conflict zones. They assured the civilians that
normalcy will return to the state immediately.
In another city of Maiduguri
where the militants have their base, the Joint Task Force (JTF), a military unit meant
to restore order in the area, alerted the residents of the plan of the dreaded Islamic
terrorist group, Boko Haram to engage in series of suicide bombing. Boko Haram, a
radical sect has been waging war to install an Islamic government and Sharia rule
in Nigeria.