Death toll in Nigerian religious riots hits 138

At least 138 Nigerians died in five days of rioting by Muslims and Christians across Africa’s most populous nation, where uncertainty o...

At least 138 Nigerians died in five days of rioting by Muslims and Christians across Africa’s most populous nation, where uncertainty over the political future is exacerbating ethnic and religious tensions.

In mainly Christian Onitsha in the southeast, at least 85 people were killed in two days of mob violence, human rights group the Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) said today.

Christian youths rampaged through the streets attacking Muslims with cutlasses and setting fire to them with petrol to avenge the killing of at least 46 people, mostly Christians, by Muslim mobs in the north.

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‘‘The majority of victims were Hausas but some Ibos were killed too,’’ Emeka Umeh, head of CLO in Anambra said. The Hausa are the main ethnic group in northern Nigeria and most of them are Muslims, while the Ibo are the dominant tribe in the southeast and they are almost all Christians.

The Anambra police commissioner declined to give a death toll, but he said that about 11,000 people, mostly Hausas, had fled their homes. —Reuters

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