Clashes between Muslim and Christian gangs subsided yesterday in the Nigerian city of Jos, where rights activists said the death toll has topped 200, but sporadic gunfire could be heard in neighboring communities.
Hundreds of soldiers and police were stationed throughout Plateau state’s capital city in central Nigeria to enforce a 24-hour curfew, which has left many streets deserted and businesses closed.
US-based Human Rights Watch said 151 bodies had been taken to the city’s mosque for burial since the violence started on Sunday, while the number of Christian dead was put at 65.
“The fighting has stopped in Jos, but we can hear gunshots in other communities in the outskirts of the city. We are expecting more corpses to be brought in from surrounding communities later today,” said Muhammad Tanko Shittu, a senior mosque official organizing mass burials, who estimated the death toll among Muslims at 155.
The official police figures were significantly lower with 20 people dead, 40 injured and 168 arrested since Sunday.
Nigerian Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, in his first use of executive power, ordered troops to Jos on Tuesday to restore calm and prevent a repetition of clashes in November 2008, when hundreds of residents were killed in the country’s worst sectarian fighting in years.
It was not clear whether Nigerian President Umaru Yar’Adua, who has been in hospital in Saudi Arabia for nearly two months, had been briefed on the situation.
This week’s violence erupted after an argument between Muslim and Christian neighbors over the rebuilding of homes destroyed in the 2008 clashes.
A Reuters correspondent saw three burned bodies lying on the streets in Jos and several buildings and cars destroyed by fire. Armored vehicles and soldiers patrolled the city, while residents ventured outside with their arms held up to signal they were unarmed.
The city’s main hospital, Jos University Teaching Hospital, treated about 50 patients on Tuesday and was forced to turn away others. Two died from their injuries.
“Ninety percent of the casualties were from gunshot injuries with a few from knives and bows and arrows,” said Dabit Joseph, a doctor at Jos University Teaching Hospital.
The Red Cross has 40 staff workers and several volunteers at seven centers in Jos to help thousands of displaced residents, an agency spokesman said.
Residents said most people were staying indoors because of rumors that some gangs were dressed up in fake military and police uniforms.
“Government has received with concern reports of men in fake security uniforms attacking unsuspecting citizens. Measures are being put in place to tackle this issue,” Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang said late on Tuesday.
Nigeria has roughly equal numbers of Christians and Muslims, although traditional animist beliefs underpin many people’s faiths.
‘CROSSING THE LINE’: China’s embassy in Seoul criticized US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson, asking if his ‘hostile’ remarks were authorized by Washington South Korea and the US are in talks over recent public remarks by the commander of US Forces Korea, Seoul’s presidential office said yesterday, after the comments drew sharp criticism from China. In a recent podcast interview, US Forces Korea Commander General Xavier Brunson described South Korea as “the dagger in the heart of Asia” from China’s east coast, prompting the Chinese embassy in Seoul to say that he had “truly crossed the line.” The interview came amid growing speculation that Washington might seek to expand the role of US Forces Korea in countering the growing regional influence of China, a key
Through the noise of rushing papers and whirring belts at a print factory in Kyoto, two creators watch their photo essay come to life in broadsheet form — part of an effort to win new audiences in the age of artificial intelligence (AI). Despite the decline of the publishing industry, self-publication and handmade “zine” magazines are growing in popularity in Japan, reflecting the nation’s enduring love of paper in the digital era. While speaking to Agence France-Presse at the plant, his hands black with ink, one of the creators, Kazuma Obara, said: “I think [paper] is a medium that engages all five
Australian researchers have trained lab-grown brain cells on a silicon computer chip to play the 1990s shooter game Doom and said they are just scratching the surface of what the neurons could be capable of doing. It is the science-fiction work of biotech boffins at Cortical Labs, who researched and developed the technology that harnesses the workings of the brain’s networking system. Each so-called “biological computer” contains about 200,000 living human brain cells, grown from stem cells that were harvested from blood donations. Having mastered the simple computer game Pong, where a paddle is moved up and down to send a ball
France experienced its hottest spring on record, the French weather service said on Tuesday, after an exceptional early heat wave that also broke highs for the season in England and Wales. Meteo-France said the average nationwide temperature over March to May was 13.8°C — about 1.7°C above the norm, and surpassing records set in 2011 and 2020. “The warmest spring since records began in 1900,” it said in a bulletin. All three months were warmer than average, but the onset of an “unprecedented heatwave” late last month pushed the mercury to highs typically seen at the height of the summer. “Our country had never
RSS