NIGERIA: Gunmen open fire on Muslim worshippers in village Dogo Dawa, in Kaduna state northern Nigeria.

Record ID: 235787

  • Title: NIGERIA: Gunmen open fire on Muslim worshippers in village Dogo Dawa, in Kaduna state northern Nigeria.
  • Date: 15th October 2012
  • Summary: KADUNA, NIGERIA (OCTOBER 14, 2012) (REUTERS) ***GRAPHIC MATERIAL*** BLOOD AND WATER ON THE GROUND WHERE PEOPLE HAVE WASHED PRAYER MATS BLOOD STAINED CLOTHING PILED WITH DEBRIS POOL OF BLOOD MATS BEING MOVED TO DRY MALLAM ABDULLAHI, THE IMAM AT JUMAAT MOSQUE WAKING PAST (SOUNDBITE) (Hausa) IMAM OF JUMAAT MOSQUE, MALLAM ABDULLAHI, SAYING: "At about 4 am, we heard gunshots, then at around 4:30 am my brother and I came out for morning prayers which I led. We finished peacefully and greeted each other. Two minutes later we heard gunshots outside. Our children inside the mosque tried to run out but we restrained them as we felt it was safer to stay inside the mosque. They stormed into the mosque and said to us: 'What we are doing to you - Makama brought it on you (head of the village vigilante group that caught and detained four gunmen).' After that, they just opened fire on us, yes, they just opened fire on us inside the mosque. I was standing close to the door, when I saw that the firing was too much, I ran out and hid in some tyres, the remaining people inside the mosque were all lying on the floor, it was while they were on the floor that they were killed." BATURE ALHAJI, HEAD OF A VIGILANTE GROUP IN THE COMMUNITY WALKING PAST (SOUNDBITE) (Hausa) HEAD OF A LOCAL VIGILANTE GROUP, BATURE ALHAJI, SAYING: "When the gunmen finished burgling the shops, they moved towards the main road so I followed them by going behind the mosque. Then I saw somebody hiding in the grass. I aimed to shoot the person but realised that it was the imam of the mosque, so I told him to remain seated and not come out. I continued to follow them passing near the mosque, I heard people inside the mosque screaming in pain, saying: 'Oh Allah, Oh Allah.' I could not go inside to help them, I just kept on following the gunmen, when I came close to them I shot at them and they ran." VARIOUS OF LOCAL RESIDENTS LOOKING ON
  • Embargoed: 30th October 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Religion,Religion
  • Reuters ID: LVA7M6F66ETCIB4751N8PCSRMZOP
  • Story Text: Armed bandits descended on a village in northern Nigeria on Sunday (October 4), killing 22 people, most of them shot dead as they were leaving prayers at a mosque, the state police commissioner said.
    The attack happened in a remote village called Dogo Dawa in Kaduna state, commissioner Olufemi Adenaike told a news conference. He added that two of the robbers had also been killed.
    An investigation had revealed it was a revenge attack by the armed gang because four of its members had been arrested by vigilantes in the village and taken to the police.
    Mallam Abdullahi, a local cleric said the weapon wielding men claimed it was a reprisal attack against a local vigilante group, before opening fire at worshippers.
    "Our children inside the mosque tried to run out but we restrained them as we felt it was safer to stay inside the mosque. They stormed into the mosque and said to us: 'What we are doing to you - Makama brought it on you (head of the village vigilante group that caught and detained four gunmen).' After that, they just opened fire on us, yes, they just opened fire on us inside the mosque. I was standing close to the door, when I saw that the firing was too much, I ran out and hid in some tyres, the remaining people inside the mosque were all lying on the floor, it was while they were on the floor that they were killed."
    Commissioner Olufemi Adenaike said following the arrest of the four men, an unidentified armed gang in Kuyello village mobilised in large numbers and stormed the village in the early hours of Sunday in a bid to rescue the four people.
    The gang killed at least 22 people, police said. Most of the victims were killed as they left the village mosque, although a number were also killed in their homes, Adenaike said. He added that two of the gang members had been killed by the vigilantes in revenge.
    Bature Alhaji, who is the head of one of the vigilante groups said:
    "When the gunmen finished burgling the shops, they moved towards the main road so I followed them by going behind the mosque... I just kept on following the gunmen, when I came close to them I shot at them and they ran."
    Like much of northern Nigeria, Kaduna is plagued by an insurgency led by radical Islamist sect Boko Haram. That, and weapons flooding in from its neighbours on the threshold of the Sahara, have aggravated levels of violence in the region.
    Armed robberies and local disputes degenerating into deadly shootouts are increasingly common across the impoverished north.
    Kaduna also lies close to Nigeria's volatile "Middle Belt", where Nigeria's mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south meet, and where tensions over land and ethnicity often erupt into violence.
    Abdullahi Muhammad, the traditional ruler and councillor of Birnin Gwari, a local government area next door to the village, earlier said the attack was carried out by a well known gang, that operates from camps in the forest and mostly attacks villages and motorists along the busy Kaduna to Lagos highway.
    ENDS
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