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New religious riot in Nigeria, death tolls rise
20 Feb 2006 18:22:59 GMT
Source: Reuters
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(Raises Bauchi death toll, updates weekend toll, adds details) By Ardo Hazzad BAUCHI, Nigeria, Feb 20 (Reuters) - At least 10 people died
in a religious riot in the northern Nigerian city of Bauchi on
Monday while the death toll from a weekend of sectarian violence
in two other northern cities was put at more than 50. Though the triggers were different, several religious
leaders said the violence was rooted in uncertainty over the
political future -- specifically, a rumoured ambition by
President Olusegun Obasanjo to stand for a third term in 2007. The fighting in Bauchi was sparked by an argument over the
Koran while in Maiduguri it started with protests over cartoons
of the Prophet Mohammad and in Katsina it was about a planned
public hearing on constitutional reform. The Red Cross put the death toll in Maiduguri and Katsina at
28, but the Christian Association of Nigeria said it had counted
at least 50 dead bodies in Maiduguri alone. "The country is tense because everybody has been fed with
the rumour of a third term and no one has come out to deny or
confirm the rumour," said Abdulkadir Orire, secretary general of
Jama'atu Nasril Islam, the nation's largest Muslim organisation. "That is why the bottled up tension is now finding
expression through these violent outbursts," Orire was quoted as
saying in Daily Trust, the main newspaper of northern Nigeria. There is strong feeling against a third term across the
north because many northerners feel the presidency should go to
one of them in 2007 after eight years of Obasanjo, who is from
the south. Obasanjo has said he would uphold the constitution, which
says a president can stay in office for just two terms. But some
of his supporters are campaigning for a constitutional amendment
that would allow him to stay on. He has not commented on that
scenario. Public hearings on constitutional reform are due to start in
Katsina and other centres on Wednesday. Opposition politicians
said that was the cause of the weekend fighting there, which
killed seven people according to the Red Cross. RELIGION AND POLITICS Nigeria's 140 million people are split about equally between
Muslims in the north and Christians in the south, although
sizeable religious minorities live in most cities. Thousands have been killed in religious violence since 12
northern Nigerian states introduced Islamic sharia law in 2000. Sectarian fighting is often stoked by politicians seeking to
bolster their own power bases, while violence in one part of the
country often sparks reprisal killings elsewhere. In Bauchi, residents said trouble began after a teacher in a
secondary school tried to confiscate a Koran from a student who
was reading it during class. Word got out into the streets that
the teacher had desecrated the Koran, infuriating Muslims. Muslim youths set fire to two churches and to cars and tyres
in central Bauchi. The protesters hurled stones at police, who
first used tear gas before firing live bullets. There was no official word on casualties but a Reuters
witness saw 10 dead bodies on the streets while at least 100
people were being treated in the main hospital, some with
life-threatening injuries. Smoke rose from various points in the city. Police set up
barricades to stop people from driving into some areas and
ordered a dusk-to-dawn curfew. Maiduguri, capital of Borno state, saw the deadliest riots
over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad that have sparked protests
across the Muslim world. The cartoons were first published in a
Danish newspaper and then in other European newspapers. About a dozen churches, 200 shops, 50 houses and 100
vehicles were razed or vandalised by protesters in Maiduguri on
Saturday.
(Additional reporting by Ibrahim Mshelizza in Maiduguri, Tume
Ahemba in Lagos and Estelle Shirbon in Abuja)
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