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Bauchi, Nigeria (Reuters) – More than 50 Nigerians were killed Sunday in clashes between security forces and militants in the northeastern town of Bauchi, told residents and hospital sources.

Combat began early on Sunday when about 70 militants armed with explosives and weapons, attacked a local police station in retaliation for the arrest of their leaders.

The police and soldiers repelled the attack and then conducted raids on neighborhoods to arrest those responsible. Hospital sources and residents said that more than 50 people died in the clashes.

A Reuters reporter counted 32 bodies at two police stations in Bauchi, said that dozens were injured between more than 200 detainees. The official death toll was 39 from the Government, including a soldier.

We're ahead of the militants. Otherwise the situation would have been bad, he told journalists the state governor Bauchi, Isa Yuguda.

I'm calling all the people of Bauchi to remain calm and rest assured that the situation is under control, he added.

CURFEW

The governor imposed a night curfew in Bauchi for the next few days to calm tensions. Was an increased police presence in some neighborhoods, but businesses remained open and people swarm the streets freely prior to curfew.

The police spokesman Mohammed Barau said the militants belonged to Boko Haram, a local group that wants to impose Sharia (Islamic law) in Nigeria.

A member of Boko Haram who was injured during the initial attack to the police station told Reuters that his group wanted to clean up the system (Nigeria) that is contaminated by the Western education and impose Sharia law throughout the country.

Bauchi is one of the 12 states in mostly Muslim northern Nigeria began a strict enforcement of Sharia law in 2000, a decision that has alienated Christian minorities andcaused waves of sectarian violence that left thousands dead.

Nigeria is divided almost equally between Christians and Muslims, although there are many animistic beliefs among the population.

More than 200 ethnic groups generally live in peace side by side country of western Africa, although the civil war left 1 million dead between 1967 and 1970 and there have been outbreaks of religious riots since.

On November, hundreds of people perished in two days of clashes in the central city of Jos after a disputed election that started the worst clashes seen in years between Christian and Muslim gangs in the most populous nation in Africa.

(Written by Randy Fabi; in Spanish edited by Marion and Javier Giraldo Leira)