Religious mobs rampage again in Nigerian cities

By Ijeoma Ezekwere

ENUGU, Nigeria (Reuters) - Muslim and Christian mobs killed four people in three Nigerian cities on Friday, extending a week of tit-for-tat religious riots that have claimed at least 151 lives.

Uncertainty over Nigeria's political future is aggravating regional, ethnic and religious rivalries ahead of elections next year. Rioting began in the mainly Muslim north and revenge attacks followed in the Christian south.

Christian youths armed with machetes and clubs attacked Muslims in the southeastern city of Enugu, beating one motorcycle taxi driver to death and burning a mosque.

James Obi, a market trader who was part of the mob, said they killed the taxi bike rider, known locally as an Okada, after a rumour that a Muslim policeman killed a Christian boy.

"We got angry and we killed one of them on Okada. His corpse has been set ablaze," he said.

A stray bullet killed an 8-year-old Christian girl and this further escalated the situation, said Aham Uba of the Civil Liberties Organisation. Rioters blocked off the area with burning barricades.

In the northern town of Kotangora, Muslim mobs killed three people, torched nine churches and looted shops owned by minority Christians, police said.

In northeastern Potiskum, Islamic youths burnt shops, churches and houses belonging to minority Christians early on Friday. Police said 65 rioters were arrested.

CARTOONS

The religious violence first broke out last Saturday in the northeastern city of Maiduguri, when a Muslim protest against Danish cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad ran out of control and 28 mostly Christian people were killed.

But the violence has taken on a logic of its own in Africa's most populous country, which is divided roughly equally between Muslims in the north and Christians in the south. Religious violence has killed thousands over the past six years.

Authorities are afraid the fighting could spiral into a bigger bloodbath and hundreds of armed riot police patrolled major cities across the north.

Many Nigerians say President Olusegun Obasanjo and some state governors will try to stay in office for a third term after eight years in power. The prospect angers those who want their own ethnic or regional blocs to have their turn.

"If the north has a problem with the third term, that is no reason to attack ordinary people and destroy houses," said Joseph Hayab of the Christian Association of Nigeria.

In the far south of the country, militants in the oil-producing Niger Delta have waged a three-month campaign of attacks and kidnappings, which has cut supplies from the world's eighth largest oil exporter and driven up world prices.

They issued pictures of nine foreign oil worker hostages -- three Americans, one Briton, two Thais, two Egyptians and one Filipino -- on Thursday night. One photograph showed the captives sitting on a bench in a forest with militants in army fatigues pointing assault rifles at their heads.

Diplomats said they were preparing for a long wait and militants denied government statements that talks were under way to secure their release.

Militants threatened more attacks on oil installations and workers in the next few days.

Analysts say the violence in the south is also linked to the electoral tensions because many groups from the southern delta also want a stab at the presidency next year and oppose any extension of Obasanjo's tenure.

(Additional reporting by Tume Ahemba and Tom Ashby in Lagos, Ibrahim Mshelizza in Maiduguri, Estelle Shirbon in Abuja)