Boko Haram: Nigerian Islamist leader defends attacks

The leader of Nigeria's Boko Haram Islamist militants has defended recent attacks on Christians, saying they are revenge for killings of Muslims. In his first video message, posted on YouTube, Abubakar Shekau referred to attacks on Muslims in recent years in several parts of northern Nigeria. Boko Haram militants attacked several churches on Christmas Day, killing dozens of worshippers. This has led to some revenge attacks on mosques in the mainly Christian south. Nigeria, Africa's most populous nation with 160 million people, is divided between a largely Muslim north and a south where most people are Christians and some animists. Thousands of people have fled their homes following the recent attacks, leading some people, including Nigeria's president and the leader of the country's main Christian organisation, to make comparisons with the 1967-70 civil war when leaders of the south-eastern Igbo ethnic group tried to secede. 'Religious cleansing' Mr Shekau, wearing a red and white turban, a bullet-proof vest and sitting in front of two Kalashnikov rifles, said he was responding to recent statements from Nigeria's President Goodluck Jonathan and the leader of the country's main Christian organisation, the Christian Association of Nigeria. He warned President Jonathan that Nigeria's security forces would not be able to defeat the group. Mr Jonathan, a Christian, has declared a state of emergency in some northern states but the attacks have continued. On Tuesday night, gunmen opened fire on a bar in the northern state of Yobe, killing eight people, including several police officers. The president recently said that he suspected some officials, politicians and members of the security forces sympathised with Boko Haram. Defending the latest spate of violence, Mr Shekau referred to the killing of Muslims in places like Jos, Kaduna, Zangon Kataf, Tafawa Balewa in recent years. Some of these places have seen bitter communal clashes but correspondents say they are often based on long-standing disputes over resources such as land, or are whipped up by politicians, rather than being based on religious differences. Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, said on Saturday that his members would protect themselves against the attacks, which he said suggested "systematic ethnic and religious cleansing". Mr Shekau said the group could only hold talks with the government in accordance with the teachings of Islam. He said the group's primary targets remained the security forces, who he said had summarily executed their former leader Mohammed Yusuf after he was arrested in 2009. After a lull, in 2010 the group started to stage drive-by shootings on government targets in its base in the north-eastern city of Maiduguri. Last year, it carried out suicide bombings on high-profile targets such as the headquarters of the UN and the police in the capital, Abuja.