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| Africa: Subsaharan |
| Christians Leave Nigerian City as Riot Rages |
| 2004-05-14 |
| Christians chased out of their homes by Muslims during bloody riots in Nigeria’s northern city of Kano boarded buses to leave town as fresh clashes broke out on Friday. Rioting Muslim mobs have burned and hacked to death hundreds of people, mostly Christians, since Tuesday in reprisals for the slaying of hundreds of Muslims in central Nigeria 10 days ago. "People are saturated with fear, especially today being Friday, so they are leaving," said Adamson Gbangange, from Gombe in eastern Nigeria, as he boarded a bus out of Kano. Clashes erupted again in the Badawa district of Nigeria’s second largest city on Friday, hours after the end of Muslim Friday prayers, aid workers said. Several blood-soaked victims bearing head wounds arrived at Kano’s main hospital. More than 10,000 Christians, many hungry and penniless, camped in police barracks across the city to escape rampaging youths armed with knives and petrol. "There are so many people that our 20 bags of rice cannot even give them one meal," said Reverend Andrew Ubah, the head of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Kano. At least 1,000 Nigerians have probably died in religious fighting across the oil exporting country in the last two weeks, although officials decline to provide credible death tolls. Ubah estimated that 1,000 people had been killed in the Kano riots alone, while hospital workers spoke of hundreds dead. The official death toll stands at 30. An aid worker said she saw three truck loads of corpses delivered to Kano’s main hospital. "On Wednesday evening they brought in two trailor loads of bodies. There was one trailer load the previous day. A lot of people were killed. I think it is even more than 600," said the medical worker, asking not to be named. Nigerian authorities routinely underestimate death tolls from religious violence in the belief the true figures could spark reprisal attacks. Heavy security was visible in other main cities across the oil exporting nation to prevent the violence spreading. The riot erupted on Tuesday after thousands of Muslims marched through Kano protesting the killing of hundreds of fellow Muslims in the remote farming town of Yelwa in central Nigeria 10 days ago. Christian and Muslim tribes have been feuding over land around Yelwa for several years, but the conflict escalated dramatically last week. Muslim survivors of the Yelwa massacre said they buried 630 corpses after a commando-style attack by Christian militia, while a senior policeman speaking off the record said hundreds were killed. Authorities have maintained a death toll of 67. Police reported renewed fighting near Yelwa in Plateau state on Friday, although they had no information on casualties. Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, on a visit to the central region on Thursday, berated religious leaders, accusing them of stoking hatred and revenge. Christian and Islamic leaders in Plateau state were detained briefly by the State Security Service on Friday and asked to apologize to Obasanjo for questioning his commitment to restoring peace. The head of the Christian Association of Nigeria in Plateau state Yakubu Pam refused to apologize and said he had never incited violence. Nigeria’s population of 130 million people is split roughly equally between Muslims and Christians. At least 6,000 people have been killed in religious violence in northern Nigeria since democracy returned in 1999. |
| Posted by:TS(vice girl) |
| #1 Maybe a system of "aparthied" in some countries or regions of the world might not be a bad thing if the racist overtones of the South African system and our own "Jim Crow" laws could be avoided. |
| Posted by: cheaderhead 2004-05-14 5:23:40 PM |