Lagos, Nigeria - Sectarian violence spread to three more Nigerian cities on Friday, claiming at least seven lives and pushing up the death toll in days of killings to at least 127, residents and witnesses said.

Rival religious and ethnic groups skirmished in the cities of Potiskum in northeastern Yobe state, Kontagora in northern Niger state and Enugu, capital of southeastern Enugu state.

Muslim youths in Potiskum, armed with machetes and clubs attacked shops belonging mostly to Christians and burned five churches, resident Ibrahim Dagbugur said. Four people were killed.

Riot police battled for hours before they could bring the violence under control, other residents said.

Police battled for hours before they could bring the violence under control.

The violence followed weekend protests over the publication in Europe of controversial cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed that have enraged Muslims worldwide.

The fighting is the worst to hit Nigeria since 2004, when Muslim-Christian skirmishes in northern Nigeria's Plateau and Kano states killed more than 700 people. Nigeria's 130 million people are almost entirely split, Christians a majority in the south.

The violence against Christians in Kontagora left two people dead and 10 churches burnt, resident Mustapha Basari said.

In the mainly Christian southeastern city of Enugu, at least one person was killed by mobs that attacked ethnic Hausa Muslims, witnesses said.

Of the 127 people killed this week in Muslim-Christian fighting across the country, 80 died in the southeastern city of Onitsha.

Thousands of Nigerians have died in sectarian strife since 2000, when mostly Muslim northern states began implementing Islamic Shariah law. - Sapa-AP

Published on the Web by IOL on 2006-02-25 08:45:07