April 5, 2011:
This time around, voting related violence is still high, but police have been more successful at stopping bomb and gun attacks. Police have managed to halt most of the religious violence in Central Nigeria. In the last hundred days, about 200 people have been killed in the area, mostly around the city of Jos.
April 2, 2011: In the last two days, three villages and a police station in the northeast were attacked by Islamic radical group Boko Haram. At least three people were killed, and many more wounded.
Failure to complete preparations on time have caused upcoming elections to be delayed a week. Thus on April 9th the vote for parliament will be held, April 16th for president and April 26th for governors and state legislatures. Parliament votes have been delayed once already. The inability to properly organize elections is seen by most Nigerians as an example of how incompetent so many of their government officials are. Millions of voters were already at the voting places, or on their way, when they heard the vote would be delayed.
March 31, 2011: Two bombs were found and defused at a rally for presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari.
March 27, 2011: In the northeast, a Boko Haran death squad killed local political candidate who opposed Islamic radicalism.
March 20, 2011: In central Nigeria, two bomb attacks on Christians were avoided. In one case, the two men placing the bomb, set it off while arming it. In the other case, two men were spotted arming their bomb, and chased away. The bomb was captured and disabled. There are growing rumors of international terrorist organizations recruiting suicide bombers in Nigeria. Mostly, this appears to be rumor and gossip, but it's something the media love to keep after.
March 15, 2011: In the Niger Delta, there was an explosion at an oil facility, which interrupted production. Rebel group MEND took credit for an attack, while the government insisted it was an accident.
March 13, 2011: In Central Nigeria, six Christians were killed in two attacks. In the northeast, gunmen killed an Islamic cleric who has been critical of Boko Haran.
March 11, 2011: In Central Nigeria, police found and seized a truck loaded with bomb making materials. Three months ago, there were a number of bombings in the area, because the truck full of explosives and other materials escaped detection.
