JOS, Nigeria: Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu deployed an army battalion to a troubled state after gunmen killed as many as 162 people in one of the country’s deadliest attacks in recent months.
The attack late Tuesday on Woro village in Kwara State came after the military recently carried out operations in the area against what it called “terrorist elements.”
Gunmen burned shops and a traditional ruler’s home and wounded people fled into the bushes, Babaomo Ayodeji, Kwara State secretary of the Red Cross, said.
“Reports said that the death toll now stands at 162, as the search for more bodies continues,” Ayodeji said.
The attack was confirmed by police who did not give a casualty figure.
Earlier, a local lawmaker Sa’idu Baba Ahmed gave an initial toll of 35-40 dead but said more bodies would be found as many wounded people had fled into the bush. The governor of the west-central state AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq gave a toll of 75 dead.
Conflicting accounts often emerge after attacks in rural areas.
No group claimed responsibility, but the state government blamed “terrorist cells” and Tinubu blamed the attack on Boko Haram jihadists.
Parts of Nigeria are plagued by armed gangs who loot villages and kidnap for ransom, as well as intercommunal violence in central states and jihadist groups that are active in the north.
Ordering a battalion to secure the area, Tinubu condemned the “beastly attack” that he said was carried out against villagers who had rejected the jihadists’ ideology.
“President Tinubu expressed rage that the attackers killed the community members who rejected their obnoxious attempt at indoctrination,” a presidential statement said.
The gunmen invaded Woro at around 6:00 p.m. (1700 GMT) on Tuesday and set “shops and the king’s palace ablaze,” said lawmaker Ahmed.
In a separate attack Tuesday in northern Katsina state, bandits were suspected of killing 23 civilians in reprisal for air force operations which killed 27 “militants,” according to a security report prepared for the United Nations.
Military campaign
In Woro, Ahmed said the traditional king’s whereabouts were unknown. The king was named by the Red Cross official as AlHajji Salihu Umar.
Nigeria has many traditional kings, emirs and rulers who hold no political office but wield great local and cultural influence.
The Nigerian military has intensified operations against jihadists and the armed bandits. Last month, the military said it had launched “sustained coordinated offensive operations against terrorist elements” in Kwara state.
Local media reported that the army had “neutralized” 150 bandits.
“Troops also stormed remote camps hitherto inaccessible to security forces where several abandoned camps and logistics enablers were destroyed significantly degrading the terrorists,” the military said in a January 30 statement.
Jihadist attacks intensified last year in Nigeria. The powerful Al-Qaeda affiliated Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) claimed responsibility for its first attack in Nigeria, in Kwara state.
JNIM operates across Nigeria’s northern border in Niger.
Researcher Brant Philip said the latest raid occurred very near the site JNIM attacked last October, suggesting a “direct overlap” between JNIM and Boko Haram, with the groups appearing to have a “loose alliance.”
In response to the latest security woes, Kwara state imposed curfews in certain areas and closed schools for several weeks before ordering them to reopen on Monday.
Insecurity in Africa’s most populous country has been under intense scrutiny in recent months since US President Donald Trump alleged a “genocide” of Nigerian Christians.
The claim has been rejected by the government and many independent experts, who say Christians and Muslims have been killed in the country’s violence, often without distinction.
Nigeria president deploys army after new massacre
https://arab.news/5ypmn
Nigeria president deploys army after new massacre
- The attack late Tuesday on Woro village in Kwara State came after the military recently carried out operations in the area
- The governor of the west-central state AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq gave a toll of 75 dead
Afghan barbers under pressure as morality police take on short beards
KABUL: Barbers in Afghanistan risk detention for trimming men’s beards too short, they told AFP, as the Taliban authorities enforce their strict interpretation of Islamic law with increasing zeal.
Last month, the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice said it was now “obligatory” to grow beards longer than a fist, doubling down on an earlier order.
Minister Khalid Hanafi said it was the government’s “responsibility to guide the nation to have an appearance according to sharia,” or Islamic law.
Officials tasked with promoting virtue “are obliged to implement the Islamic system,” he said.
With ministry officials patrolling city streets to ensure the rule is followed, the men interviewed by AFP all spoke on condition of anonymity due to security concerns.
In the southeastern province of Ghazni, a 30-year-old barber said he was detained for three nights after officials found out that one of his employees had given a client a Western-style haircut.
“First, I was held in a cold hall. Later, after I insisted on being released, they transferred me to a cold (shipping) container,” he said.
He was eventually released without charge and continues to work, but usually hides with his clients when the patrols pass by.
“The thing is that no one can argue or question” the ministry officials, the barber said.
“Everyone fears them.”
He added that in some cases where both a barber and clients were detained, “the clients have been let out, but they kept the barber” in custody.
Last year, three barbers in Kunar province were jailed for three to five months for breaching the ministry’s rules, according to a UN report.
‘Personal space’
Alongside the uptick in enforcement, the religious affairs ministry has also issued stricter orders.
In an eight-page guide to imams issued in November, prayer leaders were told to describe shaving beards as a “major sin” in their sermons.
The religious affairs ministry’s arguments against trimming state that by shaving their beards, men were “trying to look like women.”
The orders have also reached universities — where only men study because women have been banned.
A 22-year-old Kabul University student said lecturers “have warned us... that if we don’t have a proper Islamic appearance, which includes beards and head covering, they will deduct our marks.”
In the capital Kabul, a 25-year-old barber lamented that “there are a lot of restrictions” which go against his young clients’ preference for closer shaves.
“Barbers are private businesses, beards and heads are something personal, they should be able to cut the way they want,” he said.
Hanafi, the virtue propagation minister, has dismissed such arguments, saying last month that telling men “to grow a beard according to sharia” cannot be considered “invading the personal space.”
Business slump
In Afghanistan, the majority are practicing Muslims, but before the Taliban authorities returned to power in 2021, residents of major cities could choose their own appearance.
In areas where Taliban fighters were battling US-backed forces, men would grow beards either out of fear or by choice.
As fewer and fewer men opt for a close shave, the 25-year-old Kabul barber said he was already losing business.
Many civil servants, for example, “used to sort their hair a couple of times a week, but now, most of them have grown beards, they don’t show up even in a month,” he said.
A 50-year-old barber in Kabul said morality patrols “visit and check every day.”
In one incident this month, the barber said that an officer came into the shop and asked: “Why did you cut the hair like this?“
“After trying to explain that he is a child, he told us: ‘No, do Islamic hair, not English hair’.”
