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nairaland.net • View topic - 16 killed in Nigerian cartoons riots

16 killed in Nigerian cartoons riots

16 killed in Nigerian cartoons riots

Postby Richard Akindele » Mon Apr 03, 2006 3:41 am

Muslim rioters killed 16 people and burned 11 churches in northern Nigeria on Saturday in the country's first violent protests over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad, police said.

Police spokesman Haz Iwendi said 15 people were killed by rioters in the northeastern state of Borno where the churches were burned, and one person died in similar riots in the north-central state of Katsina.

"The army is assisting the police and a curfew has been imposed," Iwendi said in reference to the Borno riot.

Police arrested 115 people in Borno state capital Maiduguri and 105 in Katsina, he added.




Several hotels, shops and vehicles were also torched in Maiduguri by the demonstrators who ran wild after police fired teargas to disperse them, residents said.

"At least 10 churches, some hotels, more than 20 shops and over 10 vehicles were burned by the protesters," one resident said by phone from Maiduguri.

They were the first violent protests over the cartoons in Africa's most populous country of over 140 million people, which is divided about equally between Christians and Muslims.

The state government said troops were deployed in the streets of the capital to restore order.

"Borno state was shocked and disgusted by ... the civil disturbance that occurred in Maiduguri as a result of the protest by the Muslim community over the publication of a cartoon depicting the Holy Prophet," the state governor Modu Sheriff said in a radio and television broadcast.

The far northeastern state located on the edge of Lake Chad, is a predominantly Muslim state with a sizeable Christian population. The state has recently seen an increase in Islamic radicalism.

Last week, assembly members in the northwestern state of Kano burned Danish flags in protest at the publication of the cartoons and said they would impose a boycott of Danish goods.

The satirical cartoons were first published in a Danish newspaper last year and reprinted in European newspapers this year, triggering protests across the Muslim world.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=87608
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