BAUCHI, Nigeria: Fighting between militants and security forces in northern Nigeria left at least 35 people dead as sect members armed with spears and arrows ransacked a neighborhood and set homes ablaze, a police official said Tuesday.
Mohammed Barau, a police spokesman for Bauchi state, said members of the Kata Kalo sect began fighting among themselves and accusing each other of causing their leader to fall seriously ill. He corrected earlier official statements that the arrest of the sect leader prompted the clash.
The fighting spread into the streets of a poor neighborhood near the city of Bauchi and military forces attempted to stop the violence, Barau said. Officials said the militants were armed with spears and arrows. The militants’ fierce attack sent the military unit into a retreat, Barau said. At least one soldier died in the initial clash early Monday morning, he said, as well as two bystanders.
Barau said military and police units returned to the area in force later, but “before police got there, they had already killed themselves.”
