Nigeria: 24-hour curfew imposed in NW Nigeria

By Rafiu Ajakaye

LAGOS Nigeria (AA) - A 24-hour curfew has been imposed in northwest Nigeria as government feared outbreak of fresh round of violence only days after 55 people were killed.

“This is a notice of a 24-hour curfew imposed on Kaduna town and environs with immediate effect,” Kaduna Governor Nasir el-Rufai said on Sunday evening.

El-Rufai urged residents to comply with the directive he insisted was made “in the best interest of the state.”

Residents said the curfew was to forestall outbreak of violence in Gonin Gora area of the eponymous state.

“Some youths were already mobilizing to cause breakdown of law in the state. They were already throwing stones at moving vehicles and harassing passersby,” Haruna Ilyasu, a resident of the area, told Anadolu Agency over the phone.

The development came a day after police confirmed 55 people were killed in a communal violence between Thursday and Friday in Kasuwan Magani town of the state last week.

Separately, Nigeria’s relief agency confirmed 12 people were killed in attacks carried out by Boko Haram in northeastern Borno state.

Bashir Garga, regional head of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said the attacks occurred in Kalle, a village just 17 kilometers (11 miles) from the Borno capital Maiduguri.

The victims were mostly farmers, he added.