We were expecting trouble but not from Nigerian Army. The day before, four of our members were killed in Gabai by local vigilantes…Gabai is about 10 kilometers from Zaria.
So we were surprised to hear that soldiers were attacking Hussainniyah. The Sheikh decided we should go and pray at Daral-Rahma [cemetery]. But the Sheikh’s wife became jittery because she had heard on the news that soldiers said we wanted to kill the army boss. Someone had helped the Sheikh’s young children escape from Hussainniyah.
So when they brought them to meet us at Daral-Rahma, we decided to go home. We meet a large crowd when we got to the house. They said they heard soldiers were coming toward the Sheikh’s house.
It was not until about 10:00 PM that the soldiers started shooting. We put up our own barricade to stop the soldiers from coming close. We were throwing stones at them because that was all we had to protect ourselves. The shooting continued until 1a.m.
On Sunday December 13. Then everything was quiet. Suddenly we heard a loud boom. The people in Hussainniya called to say bombs had been thrown into the center. We could hear the explosions continued until 5 a.m. when no voices came up on the phone again.The soldiers reinforced and stormed the Sheikh’s house at 9:00 AM. We tried to stand our ground but they killed many of us, including my female friend, until they got into the house at 11 a.m. I saw at least 30 soldiers including one on a tank. I got shot and was in so much pain I could no longer stay.
I went to the makeshift clinic members set up during the night to treat the injured. It was just three houses away. I was horrified at what I saw there. All the injured people we took there all night, the doctor and the 2 nurses helping him had been shot.
I think they would have been more than 50 of them there. I ran when I got the chance.
–A 24-year-old man described the attack on Sheikh Zakzaky’s house to the Human Rights Watch on their report on 2015 Zaria Massacren.
Read the full report at https://www.hrw.org/news/2015/12/22/nigeria-army-attack-shia-unjustified
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