At least 100 people have been killed in rioting between Muslims and Christians in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, a Red Cross official said on Friday.
George Bennet, Nigeria representative of the International Federation of the Red Cross, said that a 50-strong Nigerian Red Cross emergency team in Kaduna had confirmed the deaths.
”There are also indications that the trouble has flared again this morning,” he said.
Earlier a representative for the Nigerian Red Cross was unable to confirm the death toll, but said that at least 521 injured people had been evacuated by volunteer medical teams to city hospitals.
Shehu Sani, head of the Kaduna-based Civil Rights Congress told AFP by telephone from the city that observers from his agency had seen 50 dead and many injured in various parts of the city.
”The situation has further aggravated, there have been more burnings of churches and mosques,” he said. ”Initially the attacks were mostly by Muslims, but now Christians are retaliating.”
Reverend James Wuye, who represents an inter-faith group set up to broker peace between the communities, confirmed that a riot that began as a Muslim protest against a ”blasphemous” newspaper article was now a sectarian conflict.
”Last night there were reprisal attacks against Muslims in the northern part of Kaduna,” he said.
”Now there is an uneasy calm. Religious leaders are meeting with the state governor this morning
to try and find a way to restore peace.”
All three officials said that a curfew due to end this morning had been extended through the day. Fighting broke out in Kaduna on Wednesday when Muslim youths protesting against an article on the Miss World Beauty pageant, which is due to be held in Nigeria on December 7, burned down a newspaper office of ThisDay newspaper.
On Thursday the fighting became more general as a protest march degenerated into attacks on Christian churches and homes, witnesses said. Several places of worship have been burned out and police and soldiers deployed to the streets. – Sapa-AFP