Nigeria: Tanks and troops take over the streets of Maiduguri

The people of the hot, dry and dusty town of Maiduguri on the edge of the Sahara, woke up on New Year's Day to find the streets of the town taken over by heavily armed troops in tanks and armored vehicles.

Maiduguri - Digital Journal reported that President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in the northeast region of the country, including Yobe, Borno, central Nigerian state of Plateau and parts of Niger State close to the Federal Capital Territory Abuja. Reuters reports that an eyewitness, a resident of Maiduguri, Buba Guduf, said: "We woke up this morning only to see armed soldiers all over the place and some tanks patrolling. We fear what may happen next." Another resident of Maiduguri, Ibrahim Usman, speaking with Reuters on phone, said: "The soldiers have intensified their patrol in our area and most people prefer to remain indoors for fear of the unknown." Irish Times reports that the Nigerian Army has revealed that some of it battalions that received training in counter-insurgency in the U.S. will be deployed. A spokesman of the Nigerian Army said: ?The army is in the process of setting up a division that is effectively looking at warfare tactics. Various battalions were in the United States earlier this year for training to that end.? The U.S. embassy in Abuja confirmed that the U.S. has been involved in training Nigerian military personnel over the years: ?We have had a mil-mil relationship with the Nigerians for decades, principally supporting their peacekeeping efforts in Africa and around the globe. In recent years, and at their request, we have also worked with them on their nascent counter-force. We do not know if any of these elements have been deployed in the north.? Vanguard reported that Abubabakr III, Sultan of Sokoto and official head of Muslims in Nigeria, has condemned the bombings in northern Nigeria and debunked claims that they were in service to Islam: "I want to assure all Nigerians that there is no conflict between Christians and Muslims, between Islam and Christianity. It is a conflict between evil and the good people and the good people must come together to defeat the evil ones and that is the message...we will do all we can in the best of our ability to solve the numerous problems confronting our country. We have to close ranks because nowhere in our two religions, both Christianity and Islam that says we should be violent in dealing with one another. Nobody can take anybody?s life, it is un-Islamic, it?s ungodly, nobody can take anybody?s life, all lives are sacred, must be respected and protected."

Source: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/317067

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