NIGERIA: Authorities in the north-eastern Nigerian town of Maiduguri call a 24-hour curfew after militants from the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram attack an air base

Record ID: 236272

  • Title: NIGERIA: Authorities in the north-eastern Nigerian town of Maiduguri call a 24-hour curfew after militants from the Islamic extremist group Boko Haram attack an air base
  • Date: 3rd December 2013
  • Summary: SIGN READING (English) 'NO TRESPASS' VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN STREET NEAR SITE OF ATTACK CANISTER ON THE GROUND DAMAGED SIGN FOR POLICE STATION GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS WALKING INTO POLICE STATION BURNT ENTRANCE SECURITY OFFICIAL SPEAKING WITH GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS SMOKING ROOF VARIOUS OF PEOPLE LOOKING AT BURNT PETROL TANKERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED EYEWITNESS, SAYING: "Still, we are in fears, everybody is fearing. They operated for almost good five hours. They came after 3am in the night, they are more than 200." VARIOUS OF PEOPLE IN STREETS
  • Embargoed: 18th December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Nigeria
  • Country: Nigeria
  • Topics: Crime / Law Enforcement
  • Reuters ID: LVAAX5HXF1XRVJYAQC4E8GM6RVP3
  • Story Text: Nigerian authorities imposed a 24-hour curfew in the main northeastern city of Maiduguri on Monday (December 2) after Islamist militants attacked an air force base and army sites overnight, the military said.
    Baba Ahmed Jidda, a spokesman for the government of Borno State, of which Maiduguri is the capital, announced the curfew in a statement, but gave no details of the attacks and did not say if they had caused casualties.
    The Nigerian military has periodically imposed curfews on Maiduguri, birthplace of the Boko Haram insurgency that is the gravest threat to Africa's top oil producer. But it is rare for the state government to make such an announcement.
    Nigerian defence headquarters spokesman Brigadier General Chris Olukolade later said in a statement that security forces had repelled attacks by "daring terrorists".
    Three disused aircraft and two helicopters were damaged. Flights to and from Maiduguri airport, which is near the air force base, had been disrupted but had now resumed, he said.
    Residents recounted fierce fighting overnight.

    "Still, we are in fears, everybody is fearing. They operated for almost good five hours. They came after 3am in the night, they are more than 200," an eyewitness said.
    In May, President Goodluck Jonathan declared a state of emergency in Borno and two other states, ordering an all-out offensive against the Islamist group fighting to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria. Africa's most populous country is split roughly evenly between Christians and Muslims.
    Nigeria has used air power to bomb suspected Boko Haram bases, including a strike on Friday that the military said might have killed more than 50 insurgents in one of their main bases in Gwoza.
    Initially the offensive appeared to temper the violence as soldiers wrested back control of towns, cities and stretches of semi-desert in the northeast from the militants.
    But Boko Haram's fighters have survived many assaults during the 4-1/2-year-old insurgency. After retreating this year to remoter areas, including the forested Gwoza hills near Cameroon, they have mounted deadly counter-attacks and stepped up killings of civilians they accuse of collaborating with the authorities
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