Anne Penketh
Nigeria's top Muslim leader yesterday accused Christian militias of
committing "genocide" against Muslims, as riot police were sent to quell
worsening sectarian unrest.
Justice Abdulkadir Orire, the secretary general of the umbrella organisation
Jama'atu Nasril Islam, risked fuelling the unrest when he suggested that the
state governor may have been complicit in the weekend attacks in the central
town of Yelwa that may have left 300 people dead.
. . . Reporters who entered the town on Tuesday saw mutilated and charred
corpses on the streets as Muslims lined the roadside vowing revenge for the
attacks. Almost every house on the main street had been burnt down, and a
mosque was destroyed. In neighbouring Christian villages, youths were
reported to be preparing for a new round of bloodletting.
According to Mr Orire, who is a spokesman for Nigeria's 60 million Muslims,
police stationed in Yelwa were withdrawn four days before the attack,
despite complaints from local Muslims that they were surrounded by Taroks
amid rising tension. The Christian militias, who were armed with machine
guns, surrounded Yelwa on Sunday night and reportedly went from house to
house, killing anyone in sight. . . .
FULL TEXT
David Finkel, "Crime
and Holy Punishment: In Divided Nigeria, Search for Justice Leads Many
to Embrace Islamic Code," Washington Post, November 24, 2002
"Nigerian avoids
death by stoning," BBC News, September 25, 2003
Gilbert Da Costa, "Woman says trial increased her
faith in Islam," Gwinnett Daily Post
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Muslims bury 600 after Christian slaughter," The Guardian, May 7, 2004
[A class action suit is being prepared over coming months which will accuse
the company of supporting military operations in the Niger Delta more than
10 years ago.--"Shell admits
fuelling corruption," BBC News, June 11, 2004]
Christian Allen Purefoy, "Five
days of violence by Nigerian Christians and Muslims kill 150," Independent,
February 24, 2006
["The cycle of violence is explained by the fact that both the two
communities, Muslim and Christian, share many of the same problems,
including lack of economic opportunities," says Corinne Dufka, an Africa
researcher with Human Rights Watch, based in Dakar, Senegal.--Scott Baldauf,
"What's behind Christian-Muslim fighting in
Nigeria," Christian Science Monitor, January 19, 2010]