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Anti-cartoon protest banned
20/02/2006 14:01 - (SA)
Kano - The northern Nigerian state of Gombe on Monday banned a planned protest over cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad after demonstrations in two other cities sparked riots claiming 16 lives.
"We will not allow the processions against the Danish cartoons planned for today to go on," state police commissioner Atiku Yusuf told AFP over phone.
"This is in the interest of peace," he said. "Of course there is this freedom of expression and association but when the peace of society is at stake we have to compromise these freedoms to some extent."
"We have deployed our men all over the city to ensure that nobody breaches the peace and causes trouble," he added.
In recent weeks, Muslims around the world have been protesting against the publication, mainly in European newspapers, of a set of 12 drawings which first appeared last September in a Danish daily.
Nigeria's unrest was the bloodiest and most sectarian yet seen, with crowds in the mainly Muslim north turning on the Christian minority.
In Maiduguri, the capital of the state of Borno, Muslims turned on local Christians after police broke up a rally against the drawings, burning shops and churches and killing 15 people, police spokesperson Haz Iwendi said.
At the same time, in the city of Katsina, police opened fire into a crowd of stone-throwers, killing one and injuring others, he said. Churches were also burned in Katsina, he added, but could not say how many.
Nigeria's 130-million-strong population is divided roughly equally between Muslims and Christians of a variety of sects and denominations.
Northern Nigeria is overwhelmingly Muslim, but major cities have significant Christian minorities, mainly members of the Igbo ethnic group who operate successful small businesses, trading especially in car parts and alcohol.
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