By Hannah Stewart
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
KANO, Nigeria — At least nine women who were inoculating children against polio have been shot dead in northern Nigeria by gunmen suspected of belonging to the radical Islamist sect, Boko Haram. The attacks took place in Kano, the largest city in Nigeria’s predominantly Muslim north, where families typically feel more comfortable allowing women inside their homes.
On Friday morning gunmen arrived by three-wheel taxis and opened fire in the Hotoro Hayi neighborhood, killing at least eight female vaccinators. Four more people were killed in a second attack in the Unguwa Uku neighborhood.
The final death toll remains unclear; however, a Kano police spokesman, Musa Magaji Majia, said the attacks killed nine women who were administering oral drops to children as part of a polio vaccine drive.
Unfortunately, this is not the first strike against polio vaccinators in Kano. For example, in October police reported that two officers who were involved in guarding an immunization drive were shot and killed.
While officers said there were no immediate suspects for the shootings, witnesses said the Islamist militant group Boko Haram was responsible. Boko Haram, whose Hausa name is often translated into “Western education is sacrilege/forbidden,” has been behind a series of violent attacks across northern Nigeria. Boko Haram continues to fight the country’s weak central government as the death toll climbs.
The sect has been blamed for the deaths of some 1,400 people in central and northern Nigeria since 2010. This includes an attack in Kano in January 2012 that killed at least 185.
The attack on vaccinators highlights the religious tensions surrounding the inoculation of children in one of three nations where polio still remains endemic. Last year, Nigeria registered 121 new polio infections, more than half of all cases reported around the world, according to data from the World Health Organization. The other two countries are Pakistan and Afghanistan, where there were 58 polio cases in Pakistan and 37 in Afghanistan in 2012.
Moreover, in the past month, polio workers have also been targeted and killed in Pakistan, where the Taliban have threatened anti-polio efforts. The Taliban accused health workers of working as U.S. spies and alleging that the vaccine makes children sterile. These rumors have only grown since it was revealed that a Pakistani doctor helped the CIA discover Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts by maintaining a pretexual polio vaccination program.
For more information, please see:
ABC – Gunmen Kill Nigeria Women Giving Polio Vaccine– 8 February 2013
BBC News – Nigeria Polio Vaccinators Shot Dead in Kano – 8 February 2013
Reuters – Gunmen Kill Nine Polio Health Workers in Nigeria – 8 February 2013
Washington Post – Suspected Islamic Extremists Kill at Least 9 Women Giving Polio Vaccines in Northern Nigeria – 8 February 2013
