Sudanese arrested, accused of funding December Islamic uprising

The Nigerian authorities have detained a Sudanese man on suspicion that he helped to channel funds from the Middle East to a Muslim extremist group which launched an abortive uprising in December, state security officials said on Friday. They said Muhiddin Abdullahi, who heads the Almundata Al-Islam Foundation in the northern city of Kano, was detained in Kano on Thursday night. The foundation, which builds new mosques in Nigeria, is said to be funded by wealthy Saudis. An official of the State Security Services said Abdullahi was arrested after another suspect named him as the source of some of the funds used by the militant Al Sunna wal Jamma sect, which draws its inspiration from the Taliban movement in Afghanistan. “Based on that he has some explaining to do,” the official, who did not want to be named, told IRIN. In late December, Al Sunna wal Jamma, which is seeking to establish a strict Islamic state in Nigeria, attacked the police stations in Kanamma and Geidam, two small towns in Yobe State in northeastern Nigeria near the frontier with Niger. The group of about 200 young militants killed two policemen and seized guns and ammunition before retreating to a nearby camp where they hoisted the flag of Afghanistan. A combined force of soldiers and police attacked the group which then tried unsuccessfully to occupy the state capital Damaturu. A total of 18 people were killed in several days of skirmishes before the armed group was neutralised and many of its members arrested. Since then government investigators have sought those believed to be the local and foreign backers of Al Sunna wal Jamma, whose members were mostly students and the children of influential people in northern Nigeria. Assistant Inspector General of Police, Fatai Fagbemi recently told reporters that the group was led by a man called Mohammed Yusuf who had fled to Saudi Arabia. Fagbemi said Nigeria had asked Interpol to help apprehend him. Nigeria's population of more than 120 million people is almost evenly split between a mainly Muslim north and a predominantly Christian south with a significant number of Animists in between. The adoption of the strict Islamic or Shari'ah legal code by 12 northern states in the past four years has heightened tensions and between Muslims and Christians. It has led to repeated outbreaks of communal violence in which thousands of people have died.