Calm returning to Jos - army

2008-11-30 17:07

Lagos - After two days of clashes between Muslims and Christians that witnesses said left hundreds dead, the situation had returned to normal on Sunday in the central Nigerian city of Jos, an army spokesperson said.

"The situation this morning (Sunday) is gradually returning to normal. There's not been any cases this morning (Sunday) of any destruction or violence," Brigadier Emeka Onwamaegbu told AFP.

Muslims and Christians clashed in the streets of the Plateau State capital Jos on Friday and Saturday over rumours surrounding the results of a local election held on Thursday.

Although there was no official casualty toll, several witnesses spoke of hundreds of dead.

Plateau State spokesperson James Mannok told AFP by phone that he was not able to give a casualty toll for the clashes.

But one Nigerian Red Cross official in Jos, who asked to remain anonymous, on Sunday told AFP: "Well over 300 people have been killed in the last two days of violence."

Figures 'quite exaggerated'

Khaled Abubakar, the imam from the central mosque in Jos said on Saturday that "close on 400 bodies" had been laid out in the mosque.

Earlier on Saturday a local journalist said he had counted 381 bodies in the mosque.

"I think those figures are quite exaggerated from what I've been told, but I don't want to guess," said the army spokesperson, who could not himself give a figure for the number of dead.

A Muslim cleric confirmed that calm had returned to the town.

"There's been no reports of violence this morning (Sunday), the army has taken over the capital but the only fear is what might happen at the outskirts of the town," Adamu Tsoho told AFP.

"Muslim prayers were observed on 351 dead bodies at the central mosque and then taken to the cemetery where they are being buried," he said.

Another 30 bodies had been removed from the mosque on Saturday night by relatives and had been buried.

Soldiers patrolling streets

Brigadier Onwamaegbu declined to say how many troops had been deployed in Jos, but said the town's inhabitants were once again going about their business in the streets of the town.

"Everything is under control. Soldiers are patrolling the streets," the local head of the News Agency of Nigeria told AFP by phone.

Local newspapers quoted James Mannok, spokesperson for the governor of Plateau State, as saying that around 1 500 youths had been arrested in the past two days for their alleged part in the violence.

The Nigerian Red Cross reported as early as Friday night that 300 people had been injured and that more than 10 000 people forced to flee their homes, had sought refuge in churches, mosques and army and police barracks.

A police spokesperson said the clashes were triggered by a rumour on Friday that the All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) had lost in a local election to the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

The ANPP is perceived in Jos to be a predominantly Muslim party, and the PDP mainly Christian.

Radio Plateau said the governor of Plateau State, Jonah Jang, had placed four districts of Jos under a curfew and ordered police to fire on anyone who broke it following Friday's clashes.

Curfew

The whole of the city was under a dusk-to-dawn curfew overnight.

Muslims and Christians for the most part cohabit peacefully in Nigeria.

But Jos lies in Nigeria's "middle belt", between the predominantly Muslim north and the mainly Christian south.

It was the scene of violent clashes between the two religious groups in 2001, when hundreds of people were killed.

Another town in the same state, Yelwa, experienced violence on a smilar scale in 2004.

- AFP