Sectarian clashes between Muslims and Christians have left five people killed and four others injured in Nigeria's Bauchi state. Christians raided two mosques in the state capital Bauchi overnight and reduced them to ashes. Muslim youths in response attacked and set fire to a Christian church on Saturday.
Government officials, however, blamed the violence on disaffected local politicians and said they had asked troops to take over the security duties from the police in the immediate area affected, AFP reported.
Bauchi state governor, Isa Yuguda, said he had ordered troops to be deployed to restore order in the city.
The region, 300 km (200 miles) northeast of Abuja, was rocked by religious and political violence in November, when hundreds of people were killed in the central city of Jos.
Tension has been on the rise in Bauchi since February 13, when members of a Pentecostal church opposite a mosque in the area barricaded a pathway outside the church used by Muslims attending Friday prayers.