Nigeria: tensions persist after Zaria mass killings

In northwestern
Nigeria, a lethal
conflict between the
authorities and the
outlawed Islamist
group IMN continues
one year after
hundreds were killed
in clashes.


The group
refuses to register as a
religious movement.
Muhammad Abdulhamid is
standing in front of the
ruins of what was once his
primary school in a
residential district in the
northern Nigerian
university city of Zaria.
Only the remains of a
child's swing and a few
colored stones testify that a
school once stood here. The
building was demolished by
bulldozers sent in by the
Kaduna state authorities in
late November. Four weeks
later, 23-year-old
Muhammad still can't
believe what has happened.
"We are angry at the way
the state is behaving," he
said. "A school is a place of
learning. How could one
destroy a place where
knowledge is being handed
down to our generation?"
He finds it particular
frustrating that the state
authorities themselves
devote so few resources to
education.
Muhammad Abdulhamid
believes the destruction of
the school is yet another
attempt by the state to
destroy the Islamic
Movement of Nigeria (IMN).
This minority Shiite Muslim
group made headlines
when 347 of its members
were killed from December
12 to 14, 2015. The death toll
of 347 was established by a
subsequent judicial
inquiry. The fighting began
when supporters of IMN
leader Ibrahim Zakzaky
refused to allow the army
chief of staff's convoy to
pass through the city.

In a report on the incident
released in April this year,
rights group Amnesty
International accused
Nigeria's military of
shooting dead some 350
Shiite Muslims, burying
them in mass graves and
destroying evidence of the
crime.
The military has claimed
that IMN wanted to kill
Nigerian army chief,
Lieutenant-General Tukur
Yusuf Burati. Abdulhamid
Bello, a senior IMN member,
says this accusation
is outrageous. "Everybody
knows that there is no proof
that we have resorted to the
use of armed force since
our group was founded 40
years ago," he said.
Banning IMN
The Kaduna State
government disagrees and
banned the IMN as an
illegal group in October
2016. Kaduna State
governor Nasir Ahmad El-
Rufai gives his full backing
to the move. "The fact that
the IMN has a military
wing which conducts
military training, and the
fact that they possess
weapons, was a warning
sign. We had to nip the
group in the bud before it
turned into a monster," he
said.
But critics of the state
authorities say it is
incomprehensible why the
house belonging to the
mother of IMN leader
Ibraheem Zakzaky and the
cemetery had to
be destroyed. No streets in
the vicinity were blocked.
Zakzaky himself has been in
prison for a year.
Such questions have been
preoccupying Pastor
Yohanna Buru who is
endeavoring to promote
harmonious relations
between Muslims and
Christians in Kaduna. He
believe the state authorities
are guilty of overreacting in
their handling of the Shiite
Muslim minority. "Just
because somebody blocks a
street, you can't denounce
them immediately as
insurgents," he said. Buru
believes that allegations the
group pursues a particular
ideology need to be backed
up evidence.
IMN is often accused of
failing to respect the law in
Nigeria. It has never
registered itself as a
religious movement, which
Nigerian legislation says is
mandatory. Supporters of
this legislation say it makes
it easier to identify
extremist groups.
Opponents warn of too
much surveillance. State
governor El-Rufai said if
IMN were "to accept our
constitution and legislation
and abide by them - as
other groups do - then we
wouldn't have a problem."
Abdulhamid Bello is
opposed to "full
registration," saying it
would impose too many
restrictions on his work. He
didn't elaborate, other than
to say that there were areas
within the IMN that were
registered with the
authorities. "Our schools,
for example. They have
been registered."
Violence rumbles on
That won't suffice for a
compromise with the
Kaduna authorities over the
thorny question of
registration of religious
movements. Bello has given
up hope that anything will
change in the near future.
But he does see a glimmer
of hope. At the beginning of
December, a federal high
court ordered Zakzaky's
release within 45 days.
Zakzaky has previously
been imprisoned for calling
for an Iranian-style
revolution to create a Shiite
Islamic state in northern
Nigeria.
Last month, at least 10
people were killed and
several injured when police
opened fire in clashes with
the IMN during a religious
celebration in Kano.