MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — Police on Thursday blamed a militant Islamist sect for attacks that witnesses say left 18 people dead over the past two days in Nigeria’s troubled north, part of a cycle of violence that is exacerbating religious tensions and that the government has been powerless to stop.
Meanwhile, members of a largely Muslim community in a small village about 30 miles from Nigeria’s largest northern city of Kano turned against its Christian minority after a trader was accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad, police said Thursday. Although police say nobody died in the violence, a witness reported seeing four dead bodies.
Christians and Muslims have lived together peacefully across the country of 160 million for years, but the growing violence is creating a climate of religious distrust, and local communities have lost faith in the government’s ability to protect them.
Suspected members of the sect known as Boko Haram carried out three attacks Wednesday and Thursday in different parts of the northeastern city of Maiduguri, said Borno state police spokesman Gideon Jibrin. Jibrin declined to say how many people had been killed overall, but witnesses said 18 people died - including three children.
Boko Haram did not immediately claim responsibility. The group is believed to be responsible for more than 740 deaths this year alone, according to an Associated Press count.
Front Section, Pages 10 on 11/23/2012