Police officials yesterday have said that 38 people have been killed in fighting that occurred between Islamic militants and security forces in northern Nigeria. Sect members armed with assault rifles, spears, knives and arrows ransacked a neighbourhood and set fire to homes.
Mohammed Barau, a police spokesman for Bauchi state, said Members of the Kata Kalo sect began fighting between themselves due to accusations of deliberately causing their leader to fall seriously ill.
Barau said, fighting between the Sect who were armed with spears and and knives spread into the streets of a poor neighbourhood near the city of Bauchi where military forces attempted to stop the violence.
The militants’ fierce attack sent the military unit into a retreat, Barau said. At least one soldier and a state security officer died in the initial clash early Monday morning, officials said, as well as two bystanders.
Barau said military and police units returned to the area in force later, but “before police got there, they had already killed themselves.’’ However, extrajudicial killings are common in Nigeria and an Amnesty International report released in November claims police kill hundreds each year.
Officials said they arrested 20 people after the fighting.
