As many as 100 people are dead after two days of violence in Nigeria. Muslim radicals are battling to institute Sharia law throughout the country. What’s behind this new surge of religious violence?

A series of attacks in Nigeria have left hundreds dead and many more on the run. Today in the town of Wudil, Islamic militants attacked a police station killing three. Dozens of militants were arrested during the raid. The attack is similar to fighting that broke out on Sunday when a police station in Bauchi state was attacked. Over the weekend, 65 people were killed in Bauchi state and Yobe state. Currently, armed police officers are patrolling streets across the country.

Source of the violence
Some of the militants involved in the attacks ascribe to the teachings of the cleric Mohammed Yusuf, who preaches that Western education is antithetical to Islamic teaching. Sharia law is in place across the North of Nigeria and now the militants wish to see Islamic law instituted across the entire country.  Jan Kamenju, director of the Security Research & Information Centre in Nairobi, says that the violence is, in some ways, understandable:

“The North is a religious problem. Some of it spread from the conflicts that affect Chad and the bordering areas, where Islam is dominant… And also remember Nigeria is the most populous nation in Africa.  Its got a lot of different ethnic groups and different religions.”

Around half of Nigeria’s 150 million people are Muslim; the other half is Christian. The two groups have typically lived together in peace, but violent outbursts have occurred sporadically in the past. Religious clashes between Christian and Muslims in Bauchi state left five dead in February. And more than 700 people died in Jos last November, when local elections stoked religious violence.

Containing the violence
In recent years, the Nigerian government has had to contend not only with radical Islamic terrorism, but also with attacks by the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). MEND claims they are fighting for a fairer distribution of the oil wealth from the Niger Delta, where millions are in poverty despite living in Africa’s most plentiful oil-producing region. With both MEND and Islamic militants active in the country, some question whether the Nigerian government can maintain the peace. Mr Kamenju, however, is not worried:

“They [the militants] bring instability, but they are not really a national threat… the religious fanaticism of the Islamic North is likely to continue but I strongly believe that the Nigerian force can contain it.”

Mr Kameju also added that talk may be the best way forward:

“… continuous insistence on the rule of law, that if you break the law, of course the law will take its own course.  I also think that much more dialogue with the groups would probably pay dividends.”
  
 

Listen to the entire interview with security analyst Jan Kamenju