From Reuters and Alliance Defense Fund:
Suspected Islamist sect members kill Nigeria soldier
Mon Nov 15, 2010 10:09am GMT
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Single Page[-] Text [+] MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) - Suspected members of a radical Islamist sect in northern Nigeria killed one soldier and seriously injured a second in a drive-by shooting, the latest in a series of such attacks, police said on Monday.
The gunmen shot at the soldiers as they sat outside their home on Sunday in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, where a number of local officials and members of the security services have been killed in recent weeks.
The attacks have raised fears that Boko Haram, a radical Islamist sect behind an uprising last year which led to clashes with the security forces in which hundreds of people were killed, is trying to stage a return.
"The two soldiers were shot at by two people who rode on a motorbike and opened fire on them ... One of the victims died instantly while the other sustained injuries," police spokesman Lawal Abdullahi said.
Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful" in the local Hausa language, wants sharia (Islamic law) more widely applied across Africa's most populous nation, which is roughly divided into a mostly Muslim north and largely Christian south.
It is unclear how many followers the group has, but poverty, unemployment and a lack of education have meant its leaders have managed to build a cult-like following who are as much violently anti-establishment as fervently religious.
Its views are not espoused by the vast majority of Nigeria's Muslim population, the largest in sub-Saharan Africa.
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