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Nigeria's Muslim-Christian clashes kill hundreds
Sporadic bursts of gunfire rattled the central Nigerian city of Jos on Sunday as the security forces tried to prevent more clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs in which hundreds of people have been killed. "More than 200 people have been killed in two days of clashes between Christians and Muslims in central Nigeria," the Red Cross said on Saturday describing the situation as the worst unrest in the country for years. The army sent reinforcements to enforce a 24-hour curfew on the city of Jos, which lies at the crossroads of Nigeria's Muslim north and Christian south, after rival gangs burned churches and mosques. Hundreds of victims "I counted 218 dead bodies at Masalaci Jummaa (mosque). There are many other bodies in the streets," a Red Cross official who asked not to be named told Reuters. That death toll did not include hospital figures, victims already buried, or those taken to other places of worship, meaning the final count could be much higher, officials said. "So far about 400 bodies have been brought to the mosque following the outbreak of violence," the worst sectarian riots since President Umaru Yar'Adua took office last year, Khaled Abubakar, the imam of the central mosque in Jos, told AFP. "Families are coming to identify and claim the bodies, while those that cannot be identified or nobody claims them will be interred by the mosque," Abubakar said. Posted by: Fred 2008-12-01 |
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