Religious riot rages on
2004-05-12 14:29
Kano - Riots erupted for a second day on Wednesday in the northern Nigerian city of Kano, where Muslim youths defied a huge security operation and launched attacks on the Christian minority to avenge a massacre of Muslims.
Doctors and mortuary personnel at Kano General Hospital confirmed that the death toll had risen to 15, as gangs targeted Christians in reprisal for a May 2 massacre by a Christian ethnic militia on the mainly Muslim market town of Yelwa, in central Nigeria, which left more than 300 dead.
Huge numbers of police and soldiers were deployed here Tuesday, after a rally by Muslims, called to protest the Yelwa massacre, turned violent.
By morning, the security forces had won control over the city centre and were protecting the main Christian ghetto, but once a strict overnight curfew was lifted, fighting spread to the suburbs.
Smoke could be seen rising from the outlying districts of Rijiyar Zakim Sharada and Kofar Kabuga, but soldiers prevented journalists from approaching the scene. Christians were fleeing the area in buses and police jeeps.
One truck carrying refugees crashed and overturned near the governor's palace as it raced to escape the fighting, leaving several people badly hurt.
'It could get worse'
A doctor at the hospital, who asked not to be named, said that 15 people had been treated for machete wounds and that three bodies had been brought in. In addition, there were 12 bodies in the mortuary, staff said.
As they spoke a car pulled up carrying four men with gunshot wounds, two of them shot in the stomach, two in the leg.
"We're just in from Dorayi," said a panic-stricken man who arrived with the injured. "These people you see were shot by policemen sent to the area. This sends the wrong signal. Things could get worse there."
In the main Christian district of Sabon Gari, traders gathered nervously near their shops, but did not open for business while they waited to see if the police operation would be enough to protect them from looters.
"This is the area which is normally targeted by hooligans when this kind of thing happens," said building merchant Emeka Ugoh, one of a group of nervous Christian businessmen gathered on France Road in Sabon Gari.
"As you can see, all of us are just standing here next to our shops. It's too early for us to start business because we don't know what might happen."