Nigeria began the new year yesterday under a state of emergency in areas targeted by Islamist attacks as soldiers patrolled hard-hit cities in a bid to end spiralling violence in Africa’s most populous nation.
Residents in the northeastern city of Maiduguri reported an increase in patrols and checkpoints, with soldiers in pickup trucks and armed with rifles stopping vehicles and forcing drivers to exit while also questioning them.
In the central city of Jos, security agents took over local government headquarters and two helicopters hovered overhead, while intensified patrols occurred on the ground.
“Everywhere is deserted,” one Maiduguri resident said. “People have refused to leave their homes because they are afraid of what soldiers might do to them now that there is a state of emergency in the city.”
President Goodluck Jonathan’s emergency declaration on Saturday gives security agencies more powers to search and arrest, seals off borders in hard-hit areas and establishes a military counter-terrorism force.
The declaration comes in response to scores of attacks blamed on Islamist group Boko Haram, particularly a wave of bombings on Christmas that killed 49 people, most in a gruesome blast at a Catholic church as services were ending.
While Boko Haram has been carrying out increasingly deadly attacks for months, including an August suicide bombing of UN headquarters in Abuja that left 25 dead, the Christmas violence sparked intense fear and outrage.
It also led to warnings from Christian leaders that they would defend themselves if such attacks continued, raising deep concern in a country roughly divided between a mainly Muslim north and predominately Christian south.
In declaring the state of emergency in Africa’s largest oil producer, Jonathan acknowledged that the attacks “have threatened our collective security and shaken the foundations of our corporate existence as a nation.”
Mr Jonathan said in a nationwide broadcast that “it has become imperative to take some decisive measures necessary to restore normalcy in the country especially within the affected communities.”
The decree applies to parts of the states of Borno, where Boko Haram traditionally has its base, as well as Yobe, Niger and Plateau.
The measures and rhetoric marked a sharp change for Mr Jonathan, who has come under mounting criticism over the authorities’ failure to stop the violence.