UN chief alarmed by religious clashes in Nigeria

United Nations chief Ban Ki-moon is alarmed by the bloody inter-communal clashes in the central Nigerian city of Jos, and urges a peaceful solution to religious and other differences, his press office said on Wednesday.

“The secretary general has followed with deep concern reports of the outbreak of inter-religious violence in the central Nigerian city of Jos, which resulted in significant loss of life and destruction of property,” a UN statement said.

Nearly 300 people have been killed in Muslim-Christian clashes, with authorities imposing a 24-hour curfew on Jos and Bukuru, a small town on the fringes of Jos, on Tuesday.

The curfew in Jos was relaxed on Wednesday.

Ban appealed to “all concerned to exercise maximum restraint and to seek peaceful solutions to religious and other differences in the country”.

And he called on all political and religious leaders in Nigeria to work together to address the underlying causes of the recurring sectarian violence in the country.

Fighting first erupted on Sunday when Christian youths protested the building of a mosque in a Christian-majority area of Jos, Nigeria’s 10th-largest city, which has a population of 500 000.

Houses, churches, mosques and vehicles were set ablaze in three days of fighting.—AFP