Nigeria
By DREW HINSHAW , JANUARY 7, 2012
==========================================================By DREW HINSHAW , JANUARY 7, 2012
Gunmen stormed a shopkeepers' meeting in northeast Nigeria and killed at least 20 members of a predominantly Christian ethnic group, apparently following through on an Islamic militia's ultimatum to kill Christians if they fail to leave the country's largely Muslim north.
The lethal attack against Christians, the second in as many days, poses new challenges to President Goodluck Jonathan's government. Under his rule, religious violence has surged again in Africa's most populous nation, whose population is roughly split between Christians and Muslims. The re-election of Mr. Jonathan, a Christian southerner, inspired anti-southerner riots in the north in April that killed more than 800.
Reuters
In Abuja, protesters challenge Nigeria's removal of fuel subsidies, in rallies that united Muslims and Christians.
Underscoring the pressure on Mr. Jonathan—and contrasting with Friday's deadly Kalashnikov attack on the shopkeepers—Muslims and Christians in several Nigerian cities also banded together in a rare demonstration of interfaith unity to protest the government's elimination of a popular subsidy on gasoline.
On Thursday and Friday, hundreds of residents, politicians and religious leaders protested the Monday move, which more than doubled gas prices, from about 65 naira a liter ($1.55 a gallon).
Officials say the 1.2 trillion naira ($7.4 billion) in savings—an amount representing a quarter of all government spending in the 2012 budget—would be reinvested into infrastructure. Protesters say the move disproportionately squeezes Nigeria's poor, and say the government should instead cut spending to the powerful military, or fight what they say is widespread official graft.
On Friday, a presidential aide said the government was considering measures to reduce the cost of mass transit. Officials have argued that the subsidy was a source of corruption, as much of the gas was resold at a higher cost in neighboring countries.
The protests carried echoes of recent antigovernment uprisings in northern Africa and beyond. "We will treat you as Gadhafi," read one protester's sign, in an image carried on local media.
Gas prices "are unifying the nation," said activist and onetime vice presidential candidate Yunusa Tanko, who said some 1,000 people turned out Thursday in the northern city of Kaduna. "Muslims were praying and Christians were protecting them during our protest march."
The protests have the potential to be "very dramatic," as Nigerians put aside differences to take on what they see as state corruption, said John Campbell, a former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria. He cited reports of Muslim-Christian demonstrations in Kano, where anti-Christian riots broke out in April. "This is in a city which is a byword for religious hatred and Islamic radicalism," he said.
Friday's killings provided the latest reminder of the violence that has riven the country since even before its 1960 independence from Britain. Much of the recent violence has been attributed to a militia in the northeast, Boko Haram—a group whose name loosely translates as "Western Education is sin," and is believed to have killed hundreds of people last year.
On Sunday, Boko Haram's spokesman gave Nigeria's Christians three days to stage an exodus out of the north or risk reprisals. On Thursday, gunmen raided a church in the northeastern town of Gombe during evening prayers, killing six people.
Most of Friday's 20 fatalities were shopkeepers, as well as Igbos, members of a predominantly Christian ethnic group from Nigeria's south. A witness at the meeting, Okey Raymond, 48, said he had survived by hiding under a table before slipping out a back door, the Associated Press reported. "We started hearing many gunshots through the windows," Mr. Raymond told the AP. "Everyone scampered for safety, but the gunmen chanted: 'God is Great, God is Great,' while shooting at us."
No group has taken responsibility for this week's attacks.
The government didn't comment on the attacks. Nigeria's national security adviser and a presidential spokesman didn't respond to requests to comment.
On Dec. 31, President Jonathan declared a state of emergency throughout much of the northeast, which permits police to conduct searches and arrests without warrants. Tanks continue to patrol hard-hit towns, but the moves have so far failed to curb Boko Haram's escalating violence.
The apparent futility of the government's efforts inspired threats, this week, of retaliation by militants in the Christian-dominated south. Mujahid Dokubo-Asari, a onetime oil militant who set aside arms after being dismissed from a 2007 treason charge, told reporters on Wednesday that his former militia was "seconds away" from reprisals against Muslims living in Nigeria's south.
Combined, the death threats and overtures of counterattacks have spurred fears that violence could spread southward.
"If this kind of language continues, then yes, there are bound to be revenge attacks," said Liz Donnelly, a Nigeria analyst at London-based research group Chatham House. "It just takes a couple of small groups here and there with a few guns, of which there are ample in Nigeria."
The increased violence from Boko Haram and the swelling protests, could undermine the country's economic growth, analysts said. Africa's top oil exporter, Nigeria is expected to grow 8.5% in 2012, according to an International Monetary Fund forecast.
"This is a sensitive moment," said Gordon Bottomley, a research associate at the New York-based risk consultancy Ergo. "[Nigeria]'s chance for real rapid economic growth, its chance to double its oil production, its chance to become a real, global economic player—all that is very much in jeopardy."
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