Muslim, Christian clashes in Nigeria

Clashes erupted between Muslims and Christians in Nigeria's central city of Jos yesterday, leaving several people dead and prompting the government to impose a dusk-to-dawn curfew, a resident and officials said.

A local journalist in the city, a flashpoint for inter-religious violence, said he had seen nine bodies in a hospital and several wounded, some by machetes, but officials could not confirm the toll.

Several houses and vehicles were also burnt in the fighting between Muslims and Christians in the city's Nassarawa Gwom area, said journalist and resident Musa Habibu.

"I was at the Jos University hospital where I saw nine dead bodies and six people injured with machete cuts on admission," he said.

"I can see billows of dark smoke from burning houses in Nassarawa Gwom," he said.

Authorities in Plateau State, of which Jos is the capital, confirmed the clashes but could not say how many people were killed or wounded.

"I can't give any casualty details because we are still awaiting a comprehensive report on the violence," state information commissioner Gregory Yenlong said.

"The government has placed a 12-hour curfew, from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m., on the city following some violence in Nassarawa Gwom district of the city," he said.

Plateau police spokesman Mohammed Lerema said the situation had been brought under control and several people had been detained, some of them found with guns and ammunition.

"We have arrested 35 suspects, including five in military uniforms," he said.

Jos has been a hotbed of religious violence in central Nigeria.

In November 2008 hundreds of people were killed in two days of violence triggered by a rumour that majority-Muslim All Nigerian Peoples Party had lost a local election to the mainly Christian Peoples Democratic Party.

Soldiers and policemen were brought in to restore order.

State officials put the death toll at about 200 but other sources gave a toll twice that figure.

Religious violence has also erupted in nearby northern Nigeria.

Last month at least 70 people were killed in violent clashes between security forces and members of a radical Islamist sect in country's northern Bauchi State.

Some of the unrest is blamed on the Kala-Kato sect which led religious uprisings that claimed thousands of lives in the northern cities of Kano and Yola in 1980 and 1992.

The sect abhors modernity, including Western-style education and medicine, and bans television and radio in its members' homes and rejects any literature except the Koran. It is estimated to have several thousand followers.

A similar sect, known as Boko Haram, led an insurrection in July in nearby Borno State. At least 800 people were killed when security forces crushed the uprising.