Nigerian Islamist sect leader Mohammed Yusuf was shot dead in police custody on Thursday after days of violence in northern Nigeria in which hundreds of people died.
 

Yusuf (39) was captured by the Nigerian military on Thursday after troops stormed his group’s stronghold on Wednesday. Police officials said Yusuf was shot while trying to escape. Human Rights Watch has condemned his death as a “shocking” extra judicial killing that must be investigated by the authorities.
Yusuf reportedly expressed his regret on video shortly before he died.

Hundreds people have been killed and thousands displaced in northern Nigeria since Sunday in violent clashes between Yusuf’s Boko Haram militants and government security forces. Reported death tolls vary from 180 to around 600 and are still rising.

The violence was triggered by the arrest of some Boko Haram members in Bauchi state last Sunday on suspicion of plotting to attack a police station. The sect then allegedly went on to attack more police stations and government buildings in at least three Nigerian states in the predominant Muslim north.
Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua said Boko Haram, which according to him was planning to impose its ideology on Nigerians by force, was behind the spate of violence. He ordered the security forces to contain the sect using all necessary means.

Boko Haram believes the Nigerian government is being corrupted by Western values. It wants Islamic law to be imposed across the country. Nigeria’s Muslim umbrella group Jama’atu Nasril Islam has condemned the violence and backs the security forces. Boko Haram’s views are not shared by the majority of Nigeria’s Muslim population.

According to police there are around a dozen soldiers, officers and prison officials among the dead. They claim the other victims are suspected Boko Haram followers.

Nigeria’s population of 150 million people is divided almost equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. The country has a history of religious violence. The violence in the northern provinces is not connected to the oil-related unrest in the southern Niger Delta.