Scared residents huddle among corpses at Nigeria police HQ



MAIDUGURI, Aminu Abubakar - Frightened residents of a northern Nigerian city fleeing from the pounding of heavy mortar fire have sought shelter at a police station where fresh corpses line the corridors.
The shelling by government troops is aimed at Islamic militants in clashes that have already left more than 250 people dead.
Some 30 bodies of members of the self-styled Nigerian "Taliban" have been dumped uncovered inside the police headquarters at Maiduguri, the capital of the northeastern state of Borno.



Most of them, young men in their 20s, are riddled with gunshots wounds. The heads of some look like hollow shells with brains oozing out.
The smell of blood permeates the air.
In the background is the sound of mortar fire targeting the militants' mosque and the house of their leader Mohammed Yusuf, as Nigerian security forces seek to crack down on an uprising by the "Talibans", battling with police in four northern states since early Sunday.
The shelling is taking place in Unguwar Galadima district, about five kilometres (three miles) away from the police station where a van arrives from the battefield, dropping off more bodies.
On Monday, there were more than 100 corpses strewn across the grounds of the police headquarters, but most had been removed by Tuesday.
Still, the sight and smell of death does not deter shell-shocked residents from trooping into the police station.
Dozens of scared men, women and children arrive at the police building as the sound of mortars reverberates across the city.
"It is the first time in my life that I hear this kind of mortar shelling," exclaimed one man in a hushed tone.
"I thought they targeted my house," he said, bringing along his wife and three daughters.
Police say the army is cleaning up pockets of resistance following Monday's fierce fighting.
Maiduguri is the birthplace and base of a Islamic fundamentalist sect which has confronted security forces since Sunday in four of Nigeria's 12 northern states that introduced Islamic Sharia law in 2000.
Outside the police headquarters, two armoured tanks and dozens of policemen and soldiers stand guard.
They watch as hundreds of students from a secondary boarding school, dressed in their white uniforms, run past the police station to take cover in an adjacent government building.
The streets are deserted, shops closed while a few passersby are frisked at security check points set up along roads across the city, which is under a dusk-to-dawn curfew.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Wednesday, July 29th 2009
Aminu Abubakar
           


New comment:
Twitter

News | Politics | Features | Arts | Entertainment | Society | Sport



At a glance