Især efter et blodigt angreb fra de islamiske ekstremister på handelsknudepunktet Kano flygter handelsmænd sydpå og mange må sidde og kukkelure i hjemmet, fordi de ikke kan bevæge sig uden for af frygt for en voldsom død.
KANO, 12 February 2013 (IRIN): Commercial activities in the northern trade hub (knudepunkt) of Kano are down by half since 2010 because of the campaign of violence waged by the militant islamic group Boko Haram and government efforts to curb it, says the Kano traders’ union.
“The north is losing heavily due to the violence. When you destabilize Kano, which is the commercial nerve centre of the north, you are threatening the socioeconomic well-being of the north,” Nigeria’s Information Minister Labaran Maku said in February 2012.
Danbature Abdulazeez, head of the National Harmonized Traders’ Union, estimates trade in Kano is down by half due to closed borders with Niger, Cameroon and Chad.
This include businesses shutting down or moving south for fear of violence; forced relocations; dusk-to-dawn curfews; and a ban on motorcycle-taxis, the principal means of transport in Kano.
Boko Haram has waged a campaign of violence in northern Nigeria, killing 3.000 people since the beginning of 2009, according to Human Rights Watch.
The violence has largely been concentrated in northeastern Nigeria with Maiduguri, Damaturu and Potiskum hardest hit, but on 20 January 2012 it spread to Kano when coordinated bombing and shooting attacks killed 185 people, making it Boko Haram’s deadliest attack to date.
Since then, city residents have suffered regular violent shootings and bombings linked to Boko Haram, forcing people to hunker down (kukkelure) in their homes or abandon the city.
Businessmen trekking away
Over the past year hundreds of businesses have closed or relocated.
“Business has been slow in the last one year and it is increasingly difficult to make ends meet,” said a textile trader at Kantin Kwari market, Yahuza Salisu, adding:
“Sometimes I spend the whole day in the market without making any sales because traders are no longer coming in due to the [Boko Haram] attacks. I use whatever little sales I make to feed my family.”
Salisu plans to pull his children out of private school and put them in a state school as he cannot afford the fees.
Pius Uche, a furniture-maker in Kano, told IRIN:
“I have moved my workshop to Abuja because I feel it is no longer safe to continue to stay and operate here. People I know have been killed in Boko Haram attacks and I do not want to be next.”
Liti Kulkul, head of the Kwari Textile Traders’ Association, told IRIN his annual turnover (årlige omsætning) had dropped by 62 percent.
Shops, factories close
Læs videre på
http://www.irinnews.org/Report/97462/Boko-Haram-attacks-cripple-northern-Nigeria-s-economy
