NIGERIA: At least seven people were killed and hundreds injured in riots yesterday in the northern Nigerian city of Kaduna, the Red Cross said.
Mr Patrick Bawa of the Nigerian Red Cross said that at least 278 people had been evacuated to hospital for treatment after being caught up in fighting triggered by a newspaper article on the Miss World beauty pageant, due to be held in the Nigerian capital Abuja on December 7th.
Rioting youths burned churches, looted shops and destroyed vehicles during the riots.Authorities imposed a curfew on the city, about 600 km northwest of Lagos, as soldiers were drafted to help police contain rioting that witnesses said had caused major destruction.
Witnesses in Kaduna said the protesters were blockading highways with bonfires, destroying vehicles and attacking hotels.
The fundamentalist Nigerian Muslim Umma, declaring a "serious religious emergency", issued a statement calling on the government to stop the contest.
Witnesses said hundreds of irate youths chanting "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest) descended on the Kaduna office of This Day, a leading independent daily which last Saturday ran an article saying that the prophet Muhammad would have married one of the beauty queens.
The paper yesterday ran a front-page apology, the third since publication of the story, which it said went out in error.
But this failed to appease Muslim groups, who have decreed a ban on the paper.
President Olusegun Obasanjo last week cancelled a meeting with contestants for fear of offending Muslims.
The violence in Kaduna has triggered tension in other parts of the north, where sectarian riots have killed thousands in the past three years. - (Reuters)