rooshvforum.network is a fully functional forum: you can search, register, post new threads etc...
Old accounts are inaccessible: register a new one, or recover it when possible. x


Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.
#1

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/01/09/africa/bok...-violence/
Quote:Quote:

Kano, Nigeria (CNN)Boko Haram militants opened fire on northern Nigerian villages, leaving bodies scattered everywhere and as many as 2,000 people feared dead, officials said.

"The attack on Baga and surrounding towns looks as if it could be Boko Haram's deadliest act," Amnesty International said in a statement.

Islamist militants sprayed bullets as they stormed in last weekend in trucks and armored vehicles, local authorities said Friday.

When they arrived, they unloaded motorcycles and pursued residents who fled into the bush, firing indiscriminately, said Baba Abba Hassan, a local district head.

Local officials reported death tolls ranging from hundreds to as many as 2,000 people.

"Dead bodies litter the bushes in the area and it is still no‎t safe to go and pick them (up) for burial," said Musa Bukar, the chairman of the local government where Baga is located.

"Some people who hid in their homes were burned alive." Raid lasted for days

During the raid that started January 3, hundreds of gunmen seized the town of Baga and neighboring villages, as well as a multinational military base.

Attacks started at dawn and continued throughout last weekend, according to residents.

Though local officials gave conflicting death tolls, they agreed on the massive number of fatalities.

More than 2,000 people were killed in attacks on 16 villages, Bukar said. He could not explain how he arrived at that toll.

But the local district head said hundreds of people had been killed, not thousands. The actual toll will be known after a headcount of households is complete, Hassan said.

An offensive is underway to reclaim the areas from the militants, according to Mike Omeri, a government spokesman. At least 30,000 people were displaced, authorities said. About 20,000 of the displaced camped in Maiduguri city, the capital of Borno state.

Authorities are making arrangements to transport the 10,000 others from Monguno town, 60 kilometers (36 miles) from Baga. Some residents fled into neighboring Cameroon and Chad.

"If reports that the town was largely razed to the ground and that hundreds or even as many as 2,000 civilians were killed are true, this marks a disturbing and bloody escalation of Boko Haram's ongoing onslaught against the civilian population," Amnesty International's Daniel Eyre said.

Boko Haram has terrorized northern Nigeria regularly since 2009, attacking police, schools, churches and civilians, and bombing government buildings. It has also kidnapped students, including more than 200 schoolgirls who were abducted in April and remain missing.

The Islamist group has said its aim is to impose a stricter form of Sharia law across Nigeria, which is split between a majority Muslim north and a mostly Christian south.

The United States condemned the attacks, saying the group "shows no regard" for human life.

"All those responsible for these recurring terrorist attacks must be held accountable," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.

Quite a sad situation in Africa, with serious threats from organized militancy from Al-Shabbab, Boko Haram and Al Qaeda in the Maghreb. I've read some other news that says that Boko Haram is close to controlling all of Borno State, and with the Nigerian military failing to contain this, even with harsh antisubversive methods.
Reply
#2

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

How many hashtags are going to be made about this?

Hint: none. The West feels badly about African matters when it suits a particular group's needs.

If you're not fucking her, someone else is.
Reply
#3

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

2,000...makes france seem like a fart in the wind.

Why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing? Psalm 2:1 KJV
Reply
#4

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Quote:Quote:

Though local officials gave conflicting death tolls, they agreed on the massive number of fatalities.

More than 2,000 people were killed in attacks on 16 villages, Bukar said. He could not explain how he arrived at that toll.

But the local district head said hundreds of people had been killed, not thousands. The actual toll will be known after a headcount of households is complete, Hassan said.

This section of the article doesn't do much for my inner skeptic.
Reply
#5

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

^A village was burned. If it is 2,000 or 500 victims is not really the issue.

Truly horrible this is when I feel blessed to live in the U.S. where, at the very least, this sort of thing is unimaginable.
Reply
#6

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

They will continue to do this until GoodLuck Johnathan has finished his term. They started it because they don't have a Northerner in a prominent political rank. Some have said if the government was under a militant guy like Babangida or Segun, they wouldn't be able to operate like that. Cos those military guys would go and oust these guys with brutal gunpower.

OUR NEW BLOG!

http://repstylez.com

My NEW TRAVEL E-BOOK - DOMINICAN REPUBLIC - A RED CARPET AFFAIR

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00K53LVR8

Love 'em or leave 'em but we can't live without lizardsssss..

An Ode To Lizards
Reply
#7

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

What's it going to take for the Nigerian Government to amass a force large enough to put down these rebels?

I'm wondering about the Mexican 43 as well. A well armed and organized Army can't wipe out a specific drug gang in a specific territory?

If it's impossible for well financed and organized armies to put down rebellions...

WIA
Reply
#8

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

There's a pattern here somewhere but I can't place my finger on it.....
Reply
#9

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Quote: (01-10-2015 01:33 PM)aSimpNamedBrokeback Wrote:  

Quote:Quote:

Though local officials gave conflicting death tolls, they agreed on the massive number of fatalities.

More than 2,000 people were killed in attacks on 16 villages, Bukar said. He could not explain how he arrived at that toll.

But the local district head said hundreds of people had been killed, not thousands. The actual toll will be known after a headcount of households is complete, Hassan said.

This section of the article doesn't do much for my inner skeptic.

Yeah, I noticed that too. I think they might be playing up the amount of dead in the single attack, but BH are constantly raiding in the north anyways, so any actual difference in casualties will probably just be made up by a sum of deaths from those other attacks.
Reply
#10

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Boko Haram is also suspected of a recent bombing

Quote:Quote:

Boko Haram suspected after girl, 10, blows herself up in NE Nigeria

Maiduguri (Nigeria) (AFP) - Two explosions rocked northeast Nigeria on Saturday, including one by a female suicide bomber thought to be just 10 years old who blew herself up in a crowded market, as the US condemned a bloody spike in Boko Haram violence.

At least 19 people were killed at the Monday Market in the Borno State capital, Maiduguri, at about 12:40 pm (1140 GMT) when it was packed with shoppers and traders. Hours later, a suspicious vehicle that had been stopped at a checkpoint outside the city of Potiskum, in neighbouring Yobe, exploded at a police station as its driver was being taken in for questioning.A police officer accompanying the car and the driver were killed, an officer said. Potiskum has been a repeated target for militant violenceBoth blasts came a week after a major Boko Haram attack on the fishing town of Baga in northern Borno State, which is believed to be the worst in the bloody six-year insurgency.

The town and at least 16 nearby settlements in and around Lake Chad were burnt to the ground and at least 20,000 people forced to flee their homes.

"For five kilometres (three miles), I kept stepping on dead bodies until I reached Malam Karanti village, which was also deserted and burnt," one survivor, fisherman Yanaye Grema, said.

But there was no independent corroboration of the huge numbers of dead cited locally.

The US State Department said Boko Haram's recent escalation of attacks on civilians "shows no regard for human life" and called for those responsible to be brought to justice.

"The United States abhors such violence, which continues to take a terrible toll on the people of Nigeria and the broader region, including Cameroon," it added.

- Remotely detonated? -

Boko Haram were seen as behind the attack in Maiduguri as it has increasingly used women and young girls as human bombs in their deadly campaign for a hardline Islamic state.

Civilian vigilante Ashiru Mustapha said the blast happened as the girl was being searched at the entrance to the market.

"The girl was about 10 years old and I doubt if she actually knew what was strapped to her body," he told AFP.

Witness Abubakar Bakura said: "The blast split the suicide bomber into two and flung one part across the road.

"Among the dead are two vigilantes who were searching the girl. I am pretty sure the bomb was remotely controlled."

A Red Cross official, who declined to be named, warned: "Many people sustained life-threatening injuries."

Borno State police spokesman Gideon Jubrin told reporters 19 people were killed and 18 others were injured but warned that the death toll could rise.

The market in the Borno state capital was cordoned off as health officials began the grim task of sifting through the wreckage and collecting body parts.

An attack at the same market on December 1 killed more than 10 people, and a week earlier more than 45 people lost their lives in an attack there.

On July 1, at least 15 people were killed in another suicide attack there blamed on the militants.

Female recruits -

Boko Haram launched its first female suicide attack in June last year in the northern state of Gombe and there have been a spate of bombings since, including four in a week in the city of Kano in July.

The same month a 10-year-old girl was found in Katsina state wearing a suicide vest, prompting fears that young girls were being forced into becoming human bombs rather than through ideological motivation.

Forced conscription of young men and boys by Boko Haram has been well-documented. Last July, three women said to be "female recruiters" for Boko Haram were arrested.

An alleged trainer of women bombers was also detained in Kano in August with up to 16 "trainees".

Boko Haram, fighting for the creation of an Islamist state, is now said to be in control of all three borders of Borno state with Niger, Chad and Cameroon, as well as dozens of towns and villages in Borno and the neighbouring states of Yobe and Adamawa.

Security analysts said the Baga attack was likely against civilian vigilantes assisting the military and was an ominous sign of increasing violence before general elections next month.

On Friday, militants fought running battles with troops in the Yobe state capital, Damaturu, leading to the destruction of a mosque, shops and a market.

The attack was said to be a reprisal for an offensive by civilian vigilantes and local hunters against a Boko Haram enclave in southern Yobe on Tuesday.
Reply
#11

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Quote: (01-10-2015 02:36 PM)Fisto Wrote:  

There's a pattern here somewhere but I can't place my finger on it.....

Let's not be Islamphobic. It's a peaceful religion and this attack was done by a minority who misinterpreted the text. *sarcasm*

On a more serious note; these politicians need to start making the hard decisions now. Or else they will delay even harder ones in the near future.
Reply
#12

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Nigeria is essentially fighting a civil war and for all intents and purposes is now two countries; the Muslim north (the shit bit obv) and the Christian South.

Of course this is a generalisation.
Reply
#13

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Quote: (01-10-2015 03:07 PM)CrashBangWallop Wrote:  

Nigeria is essentially fighting a civil war and for all intents and purposes is now two countries; the Muslim north (the shit bit obv) and the Christian South.

Of course this is a generalisation.


...but not by much.

I know lots of good folks from Nigeria in the south, they for the most part don't give 2 fucks about the North. The south is becoming a bubble in its own, generating GDP of 8% on average, services, communication, construction, and cheap labour from the north when needed. The far North, poor, illiterate, backwards, and Islamized pretty heavily. The people that have it the worst are the moderate middle class northeners who enjoy a brew, a blow job, and some security. They don't care about a religious war.

People in the south vote for their own people, do their own thing, and generally don't consider what's happening in the north to be their own problem. To people in the south, the Boko Haram problem is what people in the US consider the drug cartel problem in Mexico. Close, yet very distant, someone else's problem.
Reply
#14

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Quote: (01-10-2015 02:36 PM)Fisto Wrote:  

There's a pattern here somewhere but I can't place my finger on it.....

[Image: 131e241ada5685062c2ff7d004c0821a9f771b18...859191.jpg]

"...so I gave her an STD, and she STILL wanted to bang me."

TEAM NO APPS

TEAM PINK
Reply
#15

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Quote: (01-10-2015 02:32 PM)WestIndianArchie Wrote:  

What's it going to take for the Nigerian Government to amass a force large enough to put down these rebels?

I'm wondering about the Mexican 43 as well. A well armed and organized Army can't wipe out a specific drug gang in a specific territory?

If it's impossible for well financed and organized armies to put down rebellions...

WIA

'Number of men and guns is what counts' is a common misunderstanding when it comes to warfare, and one we keep paying for even today.

They don't need more tanks or soldiers. All they need is to install a Genghis Kahn type at the head of the army.

Regarding drug gangs, it is not like there is a fixed quantity of drug gangs, and if you just wipe out that fixed number, the drug war ends.
The gangs are merely 'corporations'. So long as the demand for drugs remains the same, and the supply is restricted by force, there will be a constant flow of bodies into new gangs to clear the market.
Reply
#16

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Quote: (01-10-2015 02:36 PM)Fisto Wrote:  

There's a pattern here somewhere but I can't place my finger on it.....

Brutal violence in Africa?
Reply
#17

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Quote: (01-10-2015 01:39 PM)Moma Wrote:  

They will continue to do this until GoodLuck Johnathan has finished his term. They started it because they don't have a Northerner in a prominent political rank. Some have said if the government was under a militant guy like Babangida or Segun, they wouldn't be able to operate like that. Cos those military guys would go and oust these guys with brutal gunpower.


Moma is spot on 100%. They are angry Jonathan is in power and until they get a Northern guy or more in power, they will keep this up.

I have thought about this before and the US should make it a priority in their foreign policy to help them crush these guys but when you think about it, they help keep the Muslim boogie man alive and they cannot fuck up the whole country and they have not fucked up the Shell Oil stuff and the pipelines too much either.

Dating Guide for Mainland China Datasheet
TravelerKai's Martial Arts Datasheet
1 John 4:20 - If anyone says, I love God, and hates (detests, abominates) his brother [in Christ], he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, Whom he has not seen.
Reply
#18

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Even with a northern guy this will keep up.

The problem stems initially from many players and factors.

The old (mostly northern) generals who ran the country into the ground, and looted everything out of it, the oil curse (dutch disease), the overpopulation of the north, and the Almajiri schools where impoverished undereducated northern families sent their impoverished, malnourished kids to beg for food, and read the Q'ran.

Another massive wildcard factor was the rapid Christianization of southern Nigeria from the 50s to now. The south went from a split of Christianity and indigenous traditional beliefs, to fully Christian with very vocal and powerful Evangelical element. Christianity in the south acts as a unifying source, swiping away old tribal allegiances. But it creates massive friction with the historically muslim north.

Then there's the North's slow decline into irrelevance. The south got richer, the north got poorer. Even though the rulers of Nigeria were mostly Northeners. The issue here is the rampant poverty in the north, fueled by some serious ignorance.

Muslims send their kids to Almajiri schools, which are free (state schools are not). There, they learn the Qran and beg. Pretty much all the kids who go to Almajiri schools come from large, dirt poor families. Muslims with means send their kids to real schools where they learn basics like math, and science.

The Almajiri kids aren't exactly broadening their horizons, between reading the Qran in a language they don't understand, to begging for a cup of rice to avoid starvation. You got dudes who were bankrolled by disgruntled northern politicians offering these youngsters food, shelter, and heaven. Everyone saw the Almajiri problem years ago when these kids were roaming the streets squatting, but no one did anything. No one is still doing anything. Now even if a Northerner wins, the murders will continue because this thing is out of the hands of the people who started it.

And if people think this will end just because a muslim is in power, remember that this started with President Yar'Adua still at the helm.
Reply
#19

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Quote: (01-10-2015 06:56 PM)TravelerKai Wrote:  

Quote: (01-10-2015 01:39 PM)Moma Wrote:  

They will continue to do this until GoodLuck Johnathan has finished his term. They started it because they don't have a Northerner in a prominent political rank. Some have said if the government was under a militant guy like Babangida or Segun, they wouldn't be able to operate like that. Cos those military guys would go and oust these guys with brutal gunpower.


Moma is spot on 100%. They are angry Jonathan is in power and until they get a Northern guy or more in power, they will keep this up.

I have thought about this before and the US should make it a priority in their foreign policy to help them crush these guys but when you think about it, they help keep the Muslim boogie man alive and they cannot fuck up the whole country and they have not fucked up the Shell Oil stuff and the pipelines too much either.

There are problems with this too. Buhari, the northern candidate, is an ex-general and a muslim, so it should calm down the north somewhat as well as allowing for a anti-guerilla campaign against the Kanuri, who make up Boko Haram. But Buhari is also a socialist and a rather conservative muslim who only recently changed his opinion about nationwide shariah. These guys can keep the peace but expect wealth and power to get funneled up north to the fula and the hausa as the government amasses more power and redistributes wealth.

Edit: Sorry, didn't see the above post
Reply
#20

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Quote: (01-10-2015 07:51 PM)DjembaDjemba Wrote:  

the oil curse (dutch disease)

Dutch Shell, finally, after turning the communities of many Nigerians, into ecological wastelands agreed to pay 55 million Euros to about 15,600 farmers that were affected. Even though that is a pittance, perhaps the ball will get rolling in terms of holding them more accountable for their negligence.

Quote:Quote:

Justice has been done, it would seem, for the 15,600 farmers and fishermen who are to receive about £2,000 each as part of Shell’s £55m payout for pollution caused by two oil spills in 2008 and 2009.

http://www.theguardian.com/global-develo...-companies
Reply
#21

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Quote: (01-10-2015 02:42 PM)Theudemer Wrote:  

Quote: (01-10-2015 01:33 PM)aSimpNamedBrokeback Wrote:  

Quote:Quote:

But the local district head said hundreds of people had been killed, not thousands. The actual toll will be known after a headcount of households is complete, Hassan said.

This section of the article doesn't do much for my inner skeptic.

Yeah, I noticed that too. I think they might be playing up the amount of dead in the single attack,

If hundreds of people were lying murdered all around me I certainly would not be in any shape to make accurate estimates.
Reply
#22

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Places where the religion of peace has had an impact on the world:

Southern Thailand: Estimated 4,000+ civilian, police, and military lives lost in prolonged insurgency in the last 5 years?

Southern Philippines: Hostage taking, terrorism, arms trafficking by Abu Sayef. A wonderland of extremism, kidnapping, and murder.

Indonesia: Aceh Banda area. Fundamentalist haven known for producing Al Qaeda affiliates.

Malaysia towns bordering Southern Thailand: Material, financial, and personnel support to Southern Thai insurgency.

Xinjiang province, China: Hotbed of central asian terror activity. Middle eastern financed terror cells. Regular attacks on Han Chinese population. Unknown civilian casualities but a few hundred each year at least.

Somalia: All around muslim fundamentalist shithole. Produces pirates.

Yemen: Shithole that harbors Al Qaeda operatives and infamous jihadis.

Nigeria: this thread. 'nuff said.

Syria: Battle royale between fundamentalists. Shithole.

Egypt: Rape, pyramids, scammers, and fundamentalists. Shithole.

Libya: Freshly formed fundamentalist shithole with no dictator now.

France: Shithole in training. North African/Middle eastern suburban jihadist bonanza.

Pakistan: Harbors terrorists at all levels. Covert training of jihadis to invade India.

Saudi Arabia: Royalty and a few greedy oil barons who use petrodollars to finance terror in private. Religious police, sharia law, and malls. Still a shithole.
Reply
#23

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Quote: (01-10-2015 09:27 PM)iknowexactly Wrote:  

Quote: (01-10-2015 02:42 PM)Theudemer Wrote:  

Quote: (01-10-2015 01:33 PM)aSimpNamedBrokeback Wrote:  

Quote:Quote:

But the local district head said hundreds of people had been killed, not thousands. The actual toll will be known after a headcount of households is complete, Hassan said.

This section of the article doesn't do much for my inner skeptic.

Yeah, I noticed that too. I think they might be playing up the amount of dead in the single attack,

If hundreds of people were lying murdered all around me I certainly would not be in any shape to make accurate estimates.

Thats a completely valid statement, especially when your own people were murdered. However, it could be in the benefit of vengeance to overestimate a death toll in order to provoke a greater or full response from the Nigerian government, which has been sluggish in it's efforts.
Reply
#24

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Quote: (01-10-2015 07:51 PM)DjembaDjemba Wrote:  

Even with a northern guy this will keep up.

The problem stems initially from many players and factors.

The old (mostly northern) generals who ran the country into the ground, and looted everything out of it, the oil curse (dutch disease), the overpopulation of the north, and the Almajiri schools where impoverished undereducated northern families sent their impoverished, malnourished kids to beg for food, and read the Q'ran.

Another massive wildcard factor was the rapid Christianization of southern Nigeria from the 50s to now. The south went from a split of Christianity and indigenous traditional beliefs, to fully Christian with very vocal and powerful Evangelical element. Christianity in the south acts as a unifying source, swiping away old tribal allegiances. But it creates massive friction with the historically muslim north.

Then there's the North's slow decline into irrelevance. The south got richer, the north got poorer. Even though the rulers of Nigeria were mostly Northeners. The issue here is the rampant poverty in the north, fueled by some serious ignorance.

Muslims send their kids to Almajiri schools, which are free (state schools are not). There, they learn the Qran and beg. Pretty much all the kids who go to Almajiri schools come from large, dirt poor families. Muslims with means send their kids to real schools where they learn basics like math, and science.

The Almajiri kids aren't exactly broadening their horizons, between reading the Qran in a language they don't understand, to begging for a cup of rice to avoid starvation. You got dudes who were bankrolled by disgruntled northern politicians offering these youngsters food, shelter, and heaven. Everyone saw the Almajiri problem years ago when these kids were roaming the streets squatting, but no one did anything. No one is still doing anything. Now even if a Northerner wins, the murders will continue because this thing is out of the hands of the people who started it.

And if people think this will end just because a muslim is in power, remember that this started with President Yar'Adua still at the helm.

Umm a couple things: you're mostly well informed on this, I just thought I should clarify some things:

The Northern part of Nigeria is mostly made of the equivalent of Arabs (Hausa and Fulani) who were invaded by Middle Easterners during the Atlantic Slave Trade. All their traditions and cultural heritage were pretty much wiped out, and they were structured as Arab nations. They aren't just "Muslims", they practice Sharia Law (which isn't practiced by all Muslims; you'd find millions of muslims in the South of Nigeria, who are pretty much interchangeable with Southern Christians, outside of the fact they pray five days a week.) The British couldn't get Christianity in the North, and were only able to get in the South as long as they accepted not to interrupt cultural norms among ethnic groups.

The crisis began based on an agreement that was made by members of the political party that Goodluck Johnathan belongs to (PDP). It was agreed upon, in 1999, in the party, that every election cycle where there was to be a new candidate for president, the representative of the party would switch to a tribe. Pres. Obasanjo who was from the Yoruba tribe was the first. Then it was supposed to switch to the Hausa tribe, which is where Yar'Adua comes in. He died (some believe it was due to suspicous causes, esp. in the North) and Goodluck Jonathan, who is from the small state of Delta took over. Many of the northern politicians of the PDP were pissed and requested that he leave at the end of the first full term in 2011 which he refused. And since then, Bokoharam has been on a rampage. It is believed by most Nigerians that the work of Bokoharam is being funded and enabled by Northern politicians in order to shame and disgrace Jonathan out of office. If Bokoharam spreads to the South, it would initiate a Civil War and the North would probably get wiped out.

Since the North produces little value to the Nigerian economy which had been booming until the drop in oil prices, the North was mostly left out of the massive economic growth and foreign investment from China, India and the West - they haven't been getting the government subsidies they expected, having a president from their tribe. Most of the northerners are not trained in professional careers (the northern politicians do send their children to get educated in Western education, and then bring them back to rule the Northern masses), which is why you're not likely to meet many of them in foreign countries like Yorubas and Igbo people. They are raised mostly to be soldiers or nomads. Thus all the poverty has basically made the place erupt in madness. Many northerners are dying, and they're all Muslims mostly, since the few Christians who live in North have always routinely gotten bombed or killed. Most of them have fled.
Reply
#25

Boko Haram razes town, killing two thousand.

Quote: (01-11-2015 12:33 AM)Jevioso Wrote:  

Quote: (01-10-2015 07:51 PM)DjembaDjemba Wrote:  

Even with a northern guy this will keep up.

The problem stems initially from many players and factors.

The old (mostly northern) generals who ran the country into the ground, and looted everything out of it, the oil curse (dutch disease), the overpopulation of the north, and the Almajiri schools where impoverished undereducated northern families sent their impoverished, malnourished kids to beg for food, and read the Q'ran.

Another massive wildcard factor was the rapid Christianization of southern Nigeria from the 50s to now. The south went from a split of Christianity and indigenous traditional beliefs, to fully Christian with very vocal and powerful Evangelical element. Christianity in the south acts as a unifying source, swiping away old tribal allegiances. But it creates massive friction with the historically muslim north.

Then there's the North's slow decline into irrelevance. The south got richer, the north got poorer. Even though the rulers of Nigeria were mostly Northeners. The issue here is the rampant poverty in the north, fueled by some serious ignorance.

Muslims send their kids to Almajiri schools, which are free (state schools are not). There, they learn the Qran and beg. Pretty much all the kids who go to Almajiri schools come from large, dirt poor families. Muslims with means send their kids to real schools where they learn basics like math, and science.

The Almajiri kids aren't exactly broadening their horizons, between reading the Qran in a language they don't understand, to begging for a cup of rice to avoid starvation. You got dudes who were bankrolled by disgruntled northern politicians offering these youngsters food, shelter, and heaven. Everyone saw the Almajiri problem years ago when these kids were roaming the streets squatting, but no one did anything. No one is still doing anything. Now even if a Northerner wins, the murders will continue because this thing is out of the hands of the people who started it.

And if people think this will end just because a muslim is in power, remember that this started with President Yar'Adua still at the helm.

Umm a couple things: you're mostly well informed on this, I just thought I should clarify some things:

The Northern part of Nigeria is mostly made of the equivalent of Arabs (Hausa and Fulani) who were invaded by Middle Easterners during the Atlantic Slave Trade. All their traditions and cultural heritage were pretty much wiped out, and they were structured as Arab nations. They aren't just "Muslims", they practice Sharia Law (which isn't practiced by all Muslims; you'd find millions of muslims in the South of Nigeria, who are pretty much interchangeable with Southern Christians, outside of the fact they pray five days a week.) The British couldn't get Christianity in the North, and were only able to get in the South as long as they accepted not to interrupt cultural norms among ethnic groups.

The crisis began based on an agreement that was made by members of the political party that Goodluck Johnathan belongs to (PDP). It was agreed upon, in 1999, in the party, that every election cycle where there was to be a new candidate for president, the representative of the party would switch to a tribe. Pres. Obasanjo who was from the Yoruba tribe was the first. Then it was supposed to switch to the Hausa tribe, which is where Yar'Adua comes in. He died (some believe it was due to suspicous causes, esp. in the North) and Goodluck Jonathan, who is from the small state of Delta took over. Many of the northern politicians of the PDP were pissed and requested that he leave at the end of the first full term in 2011 which he refused. And since then, Bokoharam has been on a rampage. It is believed by most Nigerians that the work of Bokoharam is being funded and enabled by Northern politicians in order to shame and disgrace Jonathan out of office. If Bokoharam spreads to the South, it would initiate a Civil War and the North would probably get wiped out.

Since the North produces little value to the Nigerian economy which had been booming until the drop in oil prices, the North was mostly left out of the massive economic growth and foreign investment from China, India and the West - they haven't been getting the government subsidies they expected, having a president from their tribe. Most of the northerners are not trained in professional careers (the northern politicians do send their children to get educated in Western education, and then bring them back to rule the Northern masses), which is why you're not likely to meet many of them in foreign countries like Yorubas and Igbo people. They are raised mostly to be soldiers or nomads. Thus all the poverty has basically made the place erupt in madness. Many northerners are dying, and they're all Muslims mostly, since the few Christians who live in North have always routinely gotten bombed or killed. Most of them have fled.
http://themiddleeastandislam.blogspot.co...tates.html
I don't know what you are talking about about the north losing most of it's heritage, but it was thoroughly islamicized, during the Fulani Jihads, which created the Sultanate of Sokoto under an actual islamic jurist and placed another one in Kanem-Bornu(Bornu state and Chad) Islam might have arabized nearly all muslim peoples in Africa to an extent, but only in Sudan and Mauretania was the original heritage of the population completely wiped out, due to huge amounts of bedouin coming in. Islam itself just gives all of the population an excuse to carry out it's violent, aggresive precepts to establish Sharia and convert "infidels".
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)