By DULUE MBACHU, Associated Press Writer
Tue Feb 21, 2:46 PM ET
LAGOS, Nigeria - Christian and Muslim mobs rampaged through two Nigerian cities Tuesday, killing at least 24 people in violence that followed deadly protests against caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad over the weekend.
ADVERTISEMENT
In the mainly Muslim northern city of Bauchi, violent protests by Muslims targeting Christians claimed the lives of 18 people, the Nigerian Red Cross said. In the predominantly southern Christian city of Onitsha, residents and witnesses said at least six Muslims were beaten to death by Christian mobs which also burned two mosques there.
Tuesday's violence brought to 49 the total number of people killed in sectarian violence in Nigeria since Saturday, when protests over controversial cartoons published in Europe of the Prophet Muhammad turned violent in the northern Muslim city of Maiduguri for the first time, killing at least 18 people, police said.
Similar protests broke out in Bauchi city soon afterward, leaving seven dead Monday and another 18 dead Tuesday, Adamu Abubakar, secretary of the Red Cross in Bauchi, told reporters.
Mobs ran through Bauchi's streets wielding machetes and sticks, Abubakar said.
"I am just coming back from Gombe Road, where we carried two dead bodies, both badly mutilated, and just at Boni Haruna Street near the Specialist Hospital, two of my staff were attacked and are seriously wounded," Abubakar said. "So, the situation is still delicate."
Among the dead there were a man, his wife and their daughter killed on Gombe Road and six other bodies burnt beyond recognition.
Violence in the southern city of Onitsha appeared to have been sparked by Saturday's killings in the mainly Muslim northern city of Maiduguri, where thousands of Muslims protesting caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad attacked Christians and burned churches.
In Onitsha on Tuesday, residents and witnesses said Christian mobs burned two mosques and beat at least six Muslims with origins in the north to death.
Christian protesters in Onitsha also attacked Muslim northerners and their properties.
"The mosque at the main market has been burnt and I've counted at least six dead bodies on the streets," Izzy Uzor, an Onitsha resident and businessman, told The Associated Press by telephone. "The whole town is in a frenzy and people are running in all directions."
Another Onitsha resident, Isotonu Achor, said one badly beaten Muslim man ran into his office from the streets to escape the violence.
"There is blood all over him and I'm scared they'll come for him here. If he doesn't get urgent treatment he will die," Achor said.
Police and government officials were not immediately available for comment.
Nigeria, Africa's most populous country of more than 130 million people, is roughly divided between a predominantly Muslim north and a mainly Christian south. Thousands of people have died in religious violence in Nigeria since 2000.
Saturday's protest over the cartoons of Prophet Muhammad in Maiduguri marked the first violent demonstrations over the issue in Nigeria. Police say at least 18 people, most of them Christians, died then, and 30 churches were burned down. The Christian Association of Nigeria said at least 50 people were killed in the violence.
Powerful Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola said in a statement earlier in the day that it was disturbing that cartoons published in Denmark "could elicit such an unfortunate reaction in Nigeria" and alleged it was part of a plot by unnamed people to Islamize Nigeria.
"It is no longer a hidden fact that a long standing agenda to make this Nigeria an Islamic nation is being surreptitiously pursued," Akinola said. He warned that Muslim leaders had no monopoly of violence, adding that it may no longer be possible to restrain restive Christian youths.
Akinola could not be reached for comment on the outbreak of anti-Muslim violence in Onitsha.
The cartoons, which first appeared in a Danish newspaper in September, have set off sometimes violent protests around the world. One caricature shows Muhammad wearing a bomb-shaped turban with an ignited fuse.
Islam widely holds that representations of Muhammad are banned for fear they could lead to idolatry.
A Danish newspaper first printed the caricatures in September. Other newspapers, mostly in Europe, have reprinted the pictures, asserting their news value and the right to freedom of expression.
___
Associated Press writer Segun Adewale contributed to this report from Bauchi
