Nigerian forces have shot dead an Islamist leader captured after an uprising that led to hundreds of deaths, with one police officer saying he pleaded for mercy before he was gunned down.
A senior police official said authorities killed the leader of the self-styled Taliban sect, Mohammed Yusuf, on Thursday after he tried to escape in the wake of an all-out assault by security forces to crush his movement.
“Mohammed Yusuf was killed by security forces in a shootout while trying to escape,” Moses Anegbode, police assistant inspector-general for northeastern Nigeria, told BRTV state television. “I can confirm that he has been killed and the body is with us.”
A policeman earlier said that the 39-year-old Yusuf had “pleaded for mercy and forgiveness before he was shot.”
A journalist saw his naked, bullet-riddled body lying on the grounds of the police headquarters among two dozen others brought in earlier from parts of the city.
State TV footage shown to officials and journalists showed jubilant police celebrating around the body, with one officer saying that he feared Yusuf would have been “let off the hook” had he been brought before the courts.
“It’s good riddance because our judiciary has so many loopholes,” the officer said.
Yusuf’s capture and death came after five days of clashes in northern Nigeria between Islamic extremists and security forces that killed at least 600 people, figures from police and witnesses showed.
Nigerian forces on Thursday put the extremists to flight after an all-out assault on their northern stronghold.
Troops raided the Islamists’ headquarters in the northern city of Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state, killing some 200 followers of the sect, including its deputy leader.
“The leader of the Taliban had been captured by the military, who raided a house where he was hiding, close to his former residence that was destroyed,” an army officer told reporters.
Calm returned to the city after the assault and residents began emerging from their homes yesterday.
Maiduguri had seen the worst of the unrest in northern Nigeria after the uprising began on Sunday in nearby Bauchi state and spread to a total of four northern states.
Troops shelled the extremist sect’s base in Maiduguri throughout the night from Wednesday to Thursday, then gunned down followers as they tried to flee, witnesses and security sources said.
Yusuf’s deputy Abubakar Shekau was killed along with 200 followers, a police officer said.
A reporter saw dozens of bodies strewn on the grounds leading to the base that was the epicenter of the bloodbath.
A source at a Maiduguri hospital said “the corpses are countless.”
“Some of the patients who are injured from the fighting are lying on the floor of the hospital for lack of space,” the source said.
Nigerian President Yar’Adua had ordered the raid to crush the movement “once and for all.”
About 1,000 troop reinforcements had been sent into Maiduguri overnight on Wednesday.
As security forces got the upper hand over the militants, some changed their appearance in a bid to escape, shaving their beards and changing into jeans and T-shirts, local resident Hamad Bulunkutu said.
Police sources said at least 3,000 residents were displaced, although many later returned to their homes.
The Islamists emerged in 2002 in Maiduguri before setting up a camp on the border with Niger, from where they launched a series of attacks on the police.
Officials say they have been in existence since 1995 under different names.
The leadership has previously said it intended to lead an armed insurrection and rid the society of “immorality” and “infidelity.”
Police sources said nationals from Niger and possibly Chad had fought alongside the Nigerian militants during the clashes this week.
The unrest is the deadliest in Nigeria since November last year when human rights groups say up to 700 were killed in the central city of Jos in direct clashes between Muslims and Christians.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS