Corpses being burnt on streets

2006-02-23 18:41

Onitsha - Christian youths burned the corpses of Muslims on Thursday on the streets of Onitsha in southeastern Nigeria, the city worst hit by religious riots that have killed at least 138 people across the country in five days.

Christian mobs, seeking revenge for the killings of Christians in the north, attacked Muslims with cutlasses, destroyed their houses and torched mosques in two days of violence in Onitsha, where at least 85 people have died.

"We are happy that this thing is happening so that the north will learn their lesson," said Anthony Umai, a motorcycle taxi rider, standing close to where Christian youths had piled up the corpses of 10 Muslims and were burning them.

Dozens more corpses had been thrown into the back of trucks by security services overnight, said residents.

Uncertainty about the political future is aggravating regional, ethnic and religious rivalries in Africa's most-populous nation.

'Peace of the graveyard'

Militants in the oil-producing south have waged a three-month campaign of attacks and kidnappings against the oil industry, which has cut exports and driven up oil prices.

There was no fighting in Onitsha on Thursday, but Emeka Umeh of the Civil Liberties Organisation human-rights group called it "the peace of the graveyard".

Some corpses were still lying on the streets and hundreds of Muslim men, women and children fled the city, crammed into open-top trucks for fear of more killings.

Thousands more were hiding in army barracks and police stations.

Tensions high at funerals

Umeh said most of the 85 bodies his group counted were Hausa, but some Ibo were killed, too.

The Hausa are the main ethnic group in northern Nigeria and most are Muslim, while the Ibo are dominant in the southeast and almost all are Christian.

In northern Maiduguri, where the Christian Association of Nigeria says 50 Christians were killed in a weekend riot that began as a protest against cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad, tensions were high during several Christian funeral masses.

The Red Cross said at least 21 people died in Maiduguri.

- Reuters