Iran Summons Nigeria's Charge d'affaires After Army Clash with Shiites in Kaduna
Iranian President, Hassan Rouhani
Iran summoned Nigeria’s charge d’affaires to protest over the Nigerian Army’s deadly crackdown on pro-Iranian Shiites in the north of the country, the official IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
The diplomat was told the foreign ministry on Monday, that Iran “demands the Nigerian government immediately shed light on the incidents, treat the injured, and compensate for damages,” IRNA said.
It said Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif also called for “immediate and serious action to prevent violence” against Shiites in a telephone call to his Nigerian counterpart, Geoffrey Onyeama.
The army clashed on Saturday and early Sunday in the largely Sunni Muslim north with the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) and arrested its leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky. The IMN seeks to establish an Islamic state through an Iranian-styled revolution.
“We have reports that bodies of our members killed outside the house of our leader are being evacuated in trucks by soldiers,” IMN spokesman Ibrahim Musa told AFP.
Musa said victims of the violence included Zakzaky’s wife, son and a former IMN spokesman. He also said Zakzaky had been arrested.
“Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky was arrested this morning in his demolished home by soldiers where he had been holed up in a room that was spared from the fire that gutted the house from grenades,” he said.
The IMN, which seeks to establish an Islamic state through an Iranian-styled revolution, has been at loggerheads with Nigeria’s authorities, leading to occasionally violent confrontations. Zakzaky has periodically been incarcerated for alleged incitement and subversion. Northern Nigeria is majority Muslim and largely Sunni.
“We can’t give a precise figure of the deaths but it is huge given the number of the members that answered the call to protect the house from the invading soldiers,” he said.
He said the group’s leader had been unable to leave the house “because of the gunshot wounds he sustained in the indiscriminate fire soldiers opened on the house and his followers who tried to protect it,” he said.
“We gathered he was taken to Kaduna (70 kilometres, 45 miles away). We got in touch with the medical doctor that is treating him who confirmed to us that our leader is critically ill from four gunshot wounds he sustained. He was shot at four times, this the doctor confirmed,” Musa told AFP.
Iran summoned Nigeria’s charge d’affaires to protest over the Nigerian Army’s deadly crackdown on pro-Iranian Shiites in the north of the country, the official IRNA news agency reported on Tuesday.
The diplomat was told the foreign ministry on Monday, that Iran “demands the Nigerian government immediately shed light on the incidents, treat the injured, and compensate for damages,” IRNA said.
It said Foreign Minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif also called for “immediate and serious action to prevent violence” against Shiites in a telephone call to his Nigerian counterpart, Geoffrey Onyeama.
The army clashed on Saturday and early Sunday in the largely Sunni Muslim north with the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN) and arrested its leader, Ibrahim Zakzaky. The IMN seeks to establish an Islamic state through an Iranian-styled revolution.
“We have reports that bodies of our members killed outside the house of our leader are being evacuated in trucks by soldiers,” IMN spokesman Ibrahim Musa told AFP.
Musa said victims of the violence included Zakzaky’s wife, son and a former IMN spokesman. He also said Zakzaky had been arrested.
“Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky was arrested this morning in his demolished home by soldiers where he had been holed up in a room that was spared from the fire that gutted the house from grenades,” he said.
The IMN, which seeks to establish an Islamic state through an Iranian-styled revolution, has been at loggerheads with Nigeria’s authorities, leading to occasionally violent confrontations. Zakzaky has periodically been incarcerated for alleged incitement and subversion. Northern Nigeria is majority Muslim and largely Sunni.
The violence was sparked when Shiite faithful on Saturday blocked the
main road outside their prayer centre, where hundreds had gathered for a
ceremony. The military claimed Shiites attacked a convoy of the army
chief, Yusuf Buratai, leaving soldiers no option but to retaliate.
Musa said the victims of the fighting included his wife, son and the former IMN spokesman.“We can’t give a precise figure of the deaths but it is huge given the number of the members that answered the call to protect the house from the invading soldiers,” he said.
He said the group’s leader had been unable to leave the house “because of the gunshot wounds he sustained in the indiscriminate fire soldiers opened on the house and his followers who tried to protect it,” he said.
“We gathered he was taken to Kaduna (70 kilometres, 45 miles away). We got in touch with the medical doctor that is treating him who confirmed to us that our leader is critically ill from four gunshot wounds he sustained. He was shot at four times, this the doctor confirmed,” Musa told AFP.
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