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Nigeria rights group says 500 dead in unrest
[Al Jazeera] More than 500 people were killed in post-election violence last week in the mostly Mohammedan north, a Nigerian human rights...which are usually open to widely divergent definitions... group has said on Sunday, warning of further unrest during upcoming state elections. The Civil Rights Congress (CRC) said that more than 500 people were killed on Monday and Tuesday in three towns alone - Zonkwa, Kafanchan and Zangon Kataf - in the southern part of Kaduna state, one of the worst-hit areas. Youths launched protests in northern towns and cities after  Goodluck Jonathan... 14th President of Nigeria. He was Governor of Bayelsa State from 9 December 2005 to 28 May 2007, and was sworn in as Vice President on 29 May 2007. Jonathan is a member of the ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP). He is a lover of nifty hats, which makes him easily recognizable unless someone else in the room is wearing a neat chapeau... , a Christian from the south, was declared the victor of an presidential April 16 election, defeating Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler and northern Mohammedan. Observers and many Nigerians say the vote was the most credible in Africa's most populous nation for decades and world leaders have congratulated Jonathan. But Buhari says the count was rigged and his supporters have refused to accept defeat. "The victims were encircled, raided and hacked to death and their homes burned," Shehu Sani, the CRC president, said in a report on Sunday based on testimony from the group's members in the communities. Churches, mosques, homes and shops were set ablaze in the violence, which has left more than 40,000 people displaced. Although a military-enforced curfew brought the violence under control in major cities after little more than a day, soldiers took longer to deploy to more remote towns. Sani said the CRC, which is based in Kaduna, confirmed 316 dead in Zonkwa, 147 in Zangon Kataf and 83 in Kafanchan. "Soldiers did not get there until afterwards," he said. Posted by: Fred 2011-04-25 |
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