20000223

Dozens die in renewed Nigerian clashes

KADUNA (Nigeria): Dozens of people were killed in fighting in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna between Christians and Muslims demanding the introduction of Islamic law, witnesses said on Tuesday.

"Police are firing indiscriminately at the rioters but they are refusing to retreat. There are bodies all over the streets," said Reuters correspondent Felix Onuah from the working class Sabo disrict of the city. Police said they had picked up 25 bodies from the streets overnight, while fighting continued in parts of the city where fighting flared on Monday after a march by thousands of Christians protesting against demands for the introduction of Sharia.

The introduction of Sharia in one state and a growing clamour from Muslims in other northern states has polarised religious opinion in the oil-producing country of at least 108 million, Africa's most populous nation.

Ethnic and political tension has been on the rise in Nigeria since President Olusegun Obasanjo took office last May to end 15 years of military dictatorship.

"What more can we do? The situation is desperate," said one police officer in Kaduna.

"We cannot really say it is any better now," one senior police officer told Reuters after his men had battled through the night to restore order. "In fact there have been reports of renewed disturbances this morning."

Violence erupted after a march by thousands of Christians protesting against appeals by Muslims for the introduction of strict Sharia Law in Kaduna following its full implementation by one northern state and its planned adoption by others.

A curfew was ignored in parts of the city, where Christian and Muslim group armed with sticks and cutlasses set up roadblocks to hunt down rivals.

Fires burned in many parts of Kaduna, including those untouched by past bouts of religious and ethnic rioting.

"I am appealing to the Christian and Muslim leaders to caution their followers and desist from the ongoing riots," Kaduna State's deputy governor, Stephen Shekoni, said in a message broadcast on local television.

Several churches were set ablaze in the northern quarters of Kaduna where Muslims predominate and a mosque was burned in the southern part of the city, where there are more Christians.

Full implementation of Sharia began in the almost exclusively Muslim and largely rural Zamfara State last month, to local jubilation but unease in other parts of the oil-producing country.

Kaduna State has a much more mixed population than Zamfara and both Muslims and Christians claim to be in the majority.

Residents in hundreds of cars tried to flee south on the road towards the capital Abuja.-Reuters