Soldiers, police in manhunt for killers

Nigerian security forces said on Sunday they were hunting for Islamist militants behind a coordinated attack in the north that killed at least 65 people, as shocked residents demanded the government do more to protect them, Reuters reports.The Boko Haram Islamist sect claimed responsibility for multiple gun and bomb attacks in the city of Damaturu on Friday evening that left bodies littering the streets and police stations, churches and mosques reduced to smouldering rubble."We are ready for them, we are going to comb every place in the state to until we find and deal with them. Our men are ready," the police commissioner for Yobe state, of which Damaturu is the capital, told Reuters.He gave the official death toll as 53, less than the tally of 65 sent to Reuters by an emergency relief agency that counted bodies in the morgues 63 from the Damaturu attack and another two from a strike on a neighbouring village.Bewildered residents questioned how the gunmen were able to take over the city and wreak havoc with apparent ease."I am a Muslim but what is happening in Nigeria now is unacceptable. President Jonathan and his security chiefs should take control of the situation. We are tired of these terrorist acts," said Abdulgafar Bello, 48, a market trader.The President rarely comments on frequent attacks in the north. But on Saturday, he said in a statement he had "directed security agencies to ensure the arrest of perpetrators of these heinous acts and assures Nigerians that all necessary will be done to ensure safety of lives and properties."But efforts to make war on Boko Haram in the past have done little to quell the insurgency and heavy-handed police tactics in the remote northeast have radicalised youths against the state creating a fertile breeding ground for more militancy.Apart from a greater presence of security on the streets of Damaturu, residents said life was slowly returning to normal as Muslims there slaughtered sheep to celebrate the Eid al Adha, the festival of sacrifice.
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