News / Nigeria

22 Muslims massacred in vicious central Nigeria attack

Saturday, 14 August 2021 11:58 PM [ Last Update: Saturday, 14 August 2021 11:58 PM ]

File photo of Nigerian soldiers (Photo by Reuters)

Assailants ambush buses carrying Muslims in central Nigeria, killing at least 22 of them and injuring 14 others.

The attack took place in the central Nigerian Plateau State on Saturday, according to the state police, China’s official Xinhua news agency reported.

It cited the provincial police force’s spokesperson, Ubah Ogaba as describing the victims as Muslims travelling in five buses “from Bauchi State to Ondo State."

The victims had just partaken in “the Annual Zikr” ceremony, he added, referring to a prayer session partaken by many Muslims that features religious recitations, he said.

He said the attackers were "suspected to be Irigwe (a local ethnic group) youths and their sympathizers," the official noted.

A security operation saved 21 people at the scene and led to the arrest of six suspects.

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‘Christian militants’

Ondo’s Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, meanwhile, described the incident as a potential case of “mistaken identity.”

He suggested that the assailants could have been Christian militants.

“They may have been possibly, mistaken” by the aggressors,” Akeredolu added.

The central government itself is denounced for conducting a years-long deadly crackdown on Shia Muslims belonging to the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN).

Abuja’s campaign has cost the lives of more than 300 of the IMN’s followers.

The country had been holding the movement’s leader Sheikh Ibrahim al-Zakzaky in dire conditions in prison for years before a court recently ordered his release.

Apart from the campaign, the country is also accused of subjecting other members of its Muslim community to heavily discriminatory and restrictive policies.

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