Probe as 700 die in Nigeria clashes
Police in northern Nigeria said they are investigating how a homegrown Islamist sect unleashed a wave of violence that left more than 700 people dead in clashes last week.
Borno state police spokesman Isa Azaza said police are holding 20 men suspected to be members of the Boko Haram sect.
He said some of the men were seized with gunpowder, vats of acid, aluminium containers for bomb-making, assault rifles and black-and-white flags with Arabic inscriptions.
Azaza said the group was well organised in its attacks on police stations and government installations.
The radical group sparked the violence with a July 26 attack on a police station in Bauchi.
Violence quickly spread to three other northern states.